POTENTIAL
by ARCHANGEMON
Summary: He was trained by the best, now it's time for him to make his dream a reality, CHAP 10 NOW UP.
1. Chapter 1

TEACHER I

The forth had died and in doing so, he had saved the village. The sacrifice was his life and the curse of his newborn child, with his dying breath, the forth made a request to whatever beings of higher power would hear him. He just wished for his son to be given the strength to survive trough the burden he had placed upon him, but most of all he asked that he would find some one that would teach him to become a great warrior.

"Just help him to become strong"

He asked the sky and then darkness over took him, yet before his soul faded he was pulled from death's grasp and a man with a goofy smile greeted him. His black hair was pointing upwards in weird angles; he was dressed in a bright orange suit.

"I will"

Were the only words he spoke before a bright yellow light engulfed him and he faded into a figure of a great golden dragon, the third smiled and knew his son would indeed become strong.

5 YEARS LATER:

The small infant that contained the demon had grown, and much to the village is annoyance they had not been able to break his spirit, despite the glares and the beatings the boy kept smiling and screaming that he would become hokage. All the while one watched and smiles at the boy is perseverance and inner strength, despite all of his ordeals he had not given up or turned his back on the village, for some one so young to show such strength of character was impressive. It was time for him to make his move. So in one of the many days that the boy ran to the forest in search of a hiding place he appeared before him, the reaction he had gotten was not what he was expecting.

"Who the hell are you?"

The man smiles.

"I am here to train you"

"Train me? Why would you do that?"

"You want to be hokage right naruto?"

"Yeah but…. Hey how do you know my name?!"

"I been watching you and I think you can become pretty strong, with my help of course"

"Yeah?"

He was hesitant but he had to be realistic, every one on the village hated him so there was no way that some one would offer to train him. This was an opportunity that came once in a lifetime and if the man wanted to train him then he had better take him up on his offer less he takes it back.

"Yes. so what do you say?"

"I don't know…I mean you look strong but"

He was no fool, just because the man looked strong didn't mean that he was strong or could help him to become strong, The man smiled and focused his energy into the palm of his hand and a small energy ball appears a second later it is unleash causing a massive explosion miles away.

"That was just a sample so interested?"

The hell he was, he had never seen that kind of jutsu nor had he ever seen chakra like the one he had; but this guy could generated it and redirect it. Not only that the explosion he had just seen had rocked the whole village.

"YOU BET I AM!"

"Good, I'll come for you tomorrow"

"OH YEAH….hey wait what's your name?"

"I'm Goku"

CHAPTER I

"THE NINE TAIL BRAT"

"Naruto come back here! When I get my hands on you"

"You punk!"

The citizens of konoha could only hear the laughter and the teasing of the blond as a bunch of shinobi ran after him, they had seen the hokage monument all covered in paint and had guessed it was naruto, they just hope that when those shinobi caught up to him they would finally do something other than simple chore punishments. That how ever was not to be; despite being, the dead last in the academy the boy was surprisingly fast and agile, well at least for some one who was sure to fail the genin exam again.

"Your just jealous cuz you don't have the guts to do what I do you losers! You will never catch me!"

That had only created more of a riot as the chase continued on, this time the two pursuers found themselves a bit over there heads and decided to call for back up. In the hokage tower, the third was interrupted yet again.

"I hope your not bothering me with some trivial matters, and don't tell me its naruto again"

To have called it an emergency made the old man frown in annoyance, sure naruto is pranks were troublesome and annoying but shinobi tended to be a bit over dramatical when it came to naruto.

"But it is naruto again he climbed into the great stone faces!"

"He put graffiti all over them too!"

That had been a new one for the old man, far as he could tell, the kid admired the forth and wanted to become hokage, taking a puff of his pipe the old man shakes his head, he knows why he has done it tough, it is because tomorrow is the genin test and naruto is nervous. That is always the pattern with him, as soon as the day arrives his pranks double and they get more and more extreme, usually pulling his grandest one on the day before the exam just like today. He just hopes that this time the boy does pass and doesn't get left behind, if there is one thing the old man can't stand is to see him depressed.

"Go about your business and don't bother me unless it's important"

"But lord hokage shouldn't we"

"Tell iruka to find him, he will know what to do"

He can see the frown and disagreement on the two shinobi before him but he doesn't care, he knows that out of all of them iruka will be the only one to not beat naruto or hurt him.

"Do as I say"

Both shinobi can only bow and puff out, the hokage smiles and shakes his head, so naruto painted the hokage monument, that boy was getting more creative on his pranks. Half an hour later iruka is rushing towards the sight of the disturbance and smiles and angry smile, for a kid who flunks every course in his class he sure as hell can run, not only that he can hide as well. He takes a deep breath and prays to kami to give him patience, rushing towards the sight he smiles when naruto lets down his guard and drops his cloak jutsu, if the kid only applied himself more on his schoolwork instead of his pranks he could actually become a decent shinobi.

"Ha that was too easy!"

"OH YEAH NARUTO!"

Iruka smiles when naruto jumps five feet into the air, the kid was good at running but you could sneak up to him wearing bells and the kid wouldn't sense you were behind him until it was too late. He either was too distracted or did not care; both were bad traits if you wanted to be a shinobi. Naruto lands on his butt and smiles up at iruka.

"Were you come from iruka sensei and what are you doing here?"

"No the question is what are you doing here? You are supposed to be in class"

The blond simply smiles and stands up, dusting himself off he smirks at iruka with a bored expression.

"Come on iruka I already been trough all those boring lectures"

"Yes and you have learn nothing, naruto this is your third year"

"Pah so what"

If stubborn was a quality to become a good shinobi naruto would be the greatest, the kid could be as stubborn as a mule and iruka knew that not matter what he said or whatever words he would use they would only enter trough one ear and come right out the other. That was just how naruto was and that worried him, today was the genin exam and if naruto failed it there was no way he would be able to take a forth one.

"You have a test today remember"

Naruto rolls his eyes and looks away.

"What's the point you're going to do the same test and I will fail it just like all those times before"

"Naruto"

Turning his back to iruka he is about to run away before the man stops him.

"Why don't you try a little harder, if you weren't to slack off so much"

His hand is slapped away and naruto turns back to him fury clearly written on his face, he is about to say something but nothing happens and iruka frowns, how can the kid be so head strong and yet not applied himself he didn't know but he knew that as soon as the test was given he would fail it.

"Let's just get to class ok"

"Yeah what ever"

The truth was that iruka was at the end of his rope with the kid, he had tried every thing that he knew to motivate him but nothing seems to work, it was as if he just didn't care, he had this way of showing off skills that he couldn't possible have and was as arrogant as they came. Now back in the classroom he believed that a little reprimand in front of the class would do him good but all it did was made him even more spiteful and snobbish, as if to prove that he would not submit to him. Iruka frowned, when would the kid learn that he was not trying to humiliate him or force him to do stuff, all of it was for his own good.

"You failed the test last year and the year before that naruto you're messing up again"

The only reply he got was a hump and a turn of his head, even being reprimanded in front of the entire class didn't fazed the kid, losing his temper he did what all teachers did when some one challenges there authority they dish out punishment and that is what he did to all of the class. So here, he had the student form in a line in order for each one of them to review the transformation jutsu. As always the other would do great and some would complain but naruto didn't care, after all none of them knew about his handicap and if they did, they didn't care, so his philosophy had turned out to just not care.

"Naruto uzumaki"

Naruto smiled, just because he couldn't advance as fast as the other didn't meant he couldn't have fun while he was at school. Summoning his chakra, he pulls out one of his favorite techniques and iruka is sent flying, the blood oozing out of his nose is enough to drop any ordinary man but lucky iruka is a shinobi and naruto knows that he will recover in no time.

"No one beats my sexy jutsu"

"CUT THE STUPID TRICKS!"

The blond smiles and waves him off, he knows iruka is treats are only made to scare him, slowly he turns around and goes back to his seat, there is no point in standing in front of the class being reprimanded yet again.

"I'm taking a nap, call me when there done testing"

"Ok smart mouth I'll see you at the hokage monument, your cleaning you mess"

"Tsch fine"

He knew the punishment was coming any ways, he always was punished be it his fault or not, no one listened no one took the time to do so. Leaning down on the desk his eyes close and he remembers that some one did listen, the memory is faint but he remembers him all to well.

3 Hours later and they stand high on top of the hokage monument, true to his word, iruka had punished him and now here he was cleaning all the paint from the faces of the great heroes of konoha.

"You're not going home till you clean up every single drop of paint"

That was a laugh, he couldn't get in trouble even if he did stay out all night, and he had no one waiting for him at home so why bother to finish in a hurry.

"Then what you'll tell my parents how badly I been behaving?"

Iruka flinched and shock his head, the kid could infuriate him to no end but he could also make him want to punch himself some times, of course, naruto wouldn't want to go home early, the kid would ratter work all night and spend it with some one than to go back to an empty apartment. He needed to change his strategy, naruto would spend the night if need be, taking a deep breath he knows that he has to become the friend and not the teacher.

"Say naruto?"

"Yeah?"

"Once we finished how about we go get some ramen? My treat"

If warnings and threats didn't work try bribery, it always worked and before he knew it, the whole deam monument was clear and naruto was cleaning him out in the old ramen stand. Iruka looked at the teen seated beside him and frowned, there was a whole bunch of layers covering the blond is actual persona and he knew that no matter how many layers he took off, naruto would always put more barriers in front of him. Naruto even tough enjoying his ramen was wondering what had brought on the offer, it was not like iruka and him were close, oh sure the man treated him nice in fact he was the only one who didn't treat him like a worthless bothersome kid and for that he was thankful.

"So tell me naruto why would you paint the hokage monument?"

"Cuz"

"Naruto you do know who the hokages are don't you?"

"Course I do"

"Then why would you do what you did?"

"Cuz ill be better than them some day"

"Naruto"

"I'll show them all what I can do…then they will stop disrespecting me"

With that he stood up and walked away from his sensei, iruka frowned and shock his head, how was the kid ever going to achieve his goal if he couldn't even pass the graduation test. Turning towards his meal, he decided to pay the bill and leaves; tomorrow was going to be one hard day. While the sensei contemplated tomorrow is heart breaking test one naruto uzumaki rested on high of one of the konoha buildings, tomorrow was going to be his final chance at graduating and becoming a ninja and yet despite all of his training he had yet to gain control over his chakra.

He had yet to control one let alone the two, shaking his head he wonders if tomorrow will be the clone jutsu test, he knows that if that is the one that is picked as the final exam then he will fail, looking a the moon he wonders if this will ends his dreams.

The next morning iruka frowns and slams the papers on the desk, it is the clone Justus again, looking at mizuki the man smiles and just takes a deep breath.

"What did you expect?"

"Yeah, it's just"

"Were teacher iruka that's what we do"

Iruka knows that mizuki is right but he just wishes that it would be a lot easier; entering the classroom he reviews the papers in front of him and takes attendance, once every one is counted for he drops the bomb. Naruto freezes and smiles, so he fails and loses his shot at becoming genin, he should be surprised but some how he is not, not only that he is one of the first ones that is called in. His luck is getting better, he fails and simply leaves with out waiting for what they have to say, he knows that this was his last shot, once in the hokage monument he wonders what his next move will be.

In the school mizuki smiles, the brat hadn't even stuck around for his little speech, but now he had him all to himself.

"Iruka can you finish here?"

"Ah yeah but why?"

"Well I got something to tend to"

"Ok then, there is only sasuke and sakura left so I guess its okay"

"Thank you I owe you one"

Minutes later, he has found naruto and his plan can be set into motion, the demon brat will be perfect for this, the boy will steal the scroll he will help him of course and then he will take it from him. After that he would sell it and make a pretty profit from it, not only that he would become the village is hero by both capturing naruto and killing him, after all stealing from the hokage is tower was a crime punishable by death. Jumping near the boy he is surprised to see him just calmly staring at the village before him, odd he should have been surprised when he had just appeared like that but he seem to just be annoyed by him.

"So how you doing"

"How do you think I'm doing?"

"Iruka is tough but he is not against you"

"Then why?"

"He wants you to be strong with all of his heart…he is like you, you know"

"That doesn't help me much mizuki sensei, this was the third and final time I could take the test….I won't get another chance"

"Oh there is a way, it's a secret but"

Back in the academy iruka looked at the proud parents and smiled congratulating both the parents and children, in the midst of all of this he had caught the hokage is gaze and smiled to the old man, sarutobi returned the smiled and signaled for him to follow. Excusing himself he walks towards the inside of the classroom and noticed the hokage is crest fallen expression.

"He failed again"

"Yes lord hokage, he couldn't make a clone"

"I see…Iruka I know how you feel, you related to the boy because you also grew up with out a family"

Iruka nods and the conversation continues and even tough the time has passed and now it is night time the conversation remains with him; even now gazing at the moon he can remember the hokage is words and can relieve the night the nine tails arrived in the village. The most horrible day of his life the day his parents were killed.

"IRUKA!"

The peaceful night turn into chaos as an order is give out to all available shinobi; naruto has stolen the sacred scroll, the scroll of sealing. One of the most powerful scroll the leaf has at its disposal its on the hands of a kid who didn't even graduate from the academy, while on there way to the hokage is tower iruka wondered just how the hell he had managed that feat. However, that would have to wait, the other shinobi were ranting about how important that scroll was, about how much damage it could do to the village if it fell to the wrong hands.

Naruto couldn't be doing what they were all thinking, he was just a kid who had been played, that had to be it, there was no way he could have gotten trough the hokage is personal guard with out some form of help. Looking at the face of the third he saw the same expression on his face, he didn't believe that naruto would betray the village, nor that he had done this alone. Never the less he was the leader of the village and as such hard decisions had to be made.

"Very well bring naruto here at once"

The order spelled doom for naruto, if any of the other shinobi were to find him before he did it was all over for the boy, none of them wanted him alive and they would used this excuse to finally get rid of him. Iruka frowned and hoped that either he or mizuki could find him before the others did. He had been all around naruto is usually hang out the only place left was the old work shed on the abandoned training grounds, that place was like naruto is second home, at least when he was running away from villagers or things were to rough on his apartment complex.

Rushing towards the area he fails to noticed the man following him. Mizuki smiles and follows behind iruka, he knew that following him around would be the fastest way to find naruto, no one knew the brat better than he did.

"It's all over for you brat, as soon as iruka finds you, you and him are both dead"

On the old training grounds a worn out naruto smiles and falls to his knees in exhaustion, it took him almost the whole night but he has finally mastered one hell of complicated jutsu, the shadow clone jutsu. He smiled and frowned at the same time, the only reason he had been able to do that deam technique was that it required a hell of a lot more chakra than any ordinary cloning technique. Good thing he had chakra to spare, taking a deep breath he puts the scroll away and drops it over his back, it time to return it after all he only needed to learn one technique to graduate.

"Naruto"

Iruka, naruto smiles and looks up at his teacher so the man wanted to test his medal and wanted him to become a good shinobi well this was the perfect time to show him his new technique.

"So found me already, I wish I would have had more time with this scroll and learn other techniques"

"You have been studying a new technique?"

"Yeah and I learned it too, so once I show it to you I pass right?"

Iruka frowned, and the look of confusion did not escape the blond boy. Something was wrong.

"Were you get that idea from?"

Naruto frowned and raised an eye brow, how could iruka not know about the loop hole, it didn't make sense, iruka on the other hand saw the boy before him thinking and knew that something foul was at play, focusing on his surroundings he felt the presence of some one else. Naruto on his part had felt the chakra of mizuki and frowned, something was definitely not right here.

"LOOK OUT!"

Before he knew it naruto was being pushed away from the flying kunai, he rolled on the ground when he came to a stop he saw iruka being impale by them, glancing at the area were the kunai had come from he saw mizuki.

"I see you found our little run away"

Naruto glared at the man, he had been used.

"So that's the way it is I should have known"

Mizuki turned away from iruka and glanced at naruto the boy was glaring at him, the kid had realized what had happened.

"Naruto give me the scroll!"

"The hell I will I….."

He tried to move and failed, something was wrong with his body, standing up he felt it and cursed, he had used too much chakra on his training. Looking at iruka he saw the condition the man was in and wondered if he could at least be able to distract or keep mizuki occupied long enough for him to recover.

"Naruto run! If that scroll falls into his hands our village is doomed"

"What?"

"It contains forbidden jutsu and secrets known only to our village we must keep it safe!"

Not good his body was hurt and by the looks of it naruto was exhausted from his training, he had to at least hold mizuki off while the kid when to get some help. Pulling the kunai out of his leg and arm, he wonders if he still has enough to distract mizuki, both of them were good teachers but mizuki was a better fighter. He had no choice, as much as naruto hated to do it he needed to run, to at least catch his breath, there was no way he could fight off a full fledge ninja all on his own, specially one who was prepared for a fight.

"Naruto he is lying, he doesn't want you to become strong!"

That froze him, he looked at mizuki and saw the smirk on his face, something else was going on here, and he sounded sure of himself.

"Stop lying mizuki!"

"Oh? Then perhaps you should tell him"

"No mizuki!"

Naruto frowned, iruka was nervous and for some reason did not want mizuki to talk, he needed to hear what the other shinobi had to say, especially if it concern him.

"They been lying to you naruto, since the day you were born 12 years ago a decree was give out"

"What decree what are you talking about?!"

"The decree is that no one can tell you what you have inside you"

"NO MIZUKI!"

The two charkas? Naruto shock his head, no iruka is voice was now filled with panic so mizuki had to be talking about something else. Looking at the man he knew that he was enjoying this and was doing it to break him, but he wouldn't let his mind games over power him, he was trained by the best he wouldn't let this man beat him like that.

"Tell me already!"

"No one can tell you that the nine tail fox is inside you! The fox spirit that destroyed our village has taken over your body you are the nine tail demon"

A demon…naruto closed his eyes, no that couldn't be true but…his two charkas, the way his body healed over the course of his training, it couldn't be, looking at iruka he saw the surprised and worried look, and it told him every thing he needed to know. Mizuki wasn't lying he had the nine tails inside of him. He now knew why he was treated the way he was, why no one wanted him and why every one hated him just for being alive, they didn't hate him they hated the demon but if it was inside of him then that would mean that he was the demon. His chakra began to flare and his anger grew, that is why no one accepted him, he now knew the reason behind his misery.

"Every one hates you even iruka"

Iruka frowned, this could not be happening naruto couldn't lose control, clenching his leg he remembered what the hokage had said to him, he remembered his own pain as a child and how he wished that some one was there for him. Just like naruto he never had a mother or father but unlike him he was never hated, he was not shut out from everywhere and no one turned there backs against him with out never knowing why. The villages they wouldn't even look at naruto….if his pain as a kid was bad then he couldn't even begin to imagine how big naruto is pain was. He had been taken care of by the orphanage and yet naruto, he never had any one that cared for him.

"Die naruto!"

Naruto saw the shuriken and froze, he couldn't duck and he couldn't run, he had been to distracted, he had been too focused on the why and the how, he had let mizuki is mind games distract him and he was going to die.

"Naruto get down!"

Before he knew it he was on the ground and iruka was covering him wit his own body, the shuriken sticking out of his back.

"W-why?"

"Were the same….like you I had no parents….no one seem to care but were the same, I should have been there for you more often naruto….I'm sorry"

The hokage watched trough his crystal ball and frowned, iruka was hurt badly he had saved naruto, but in the process lost the battle. Now there was no one who could keep mizuki from taking the scroll from naruto not only that the boy is anger was reaching it peek if that continued to go on the seal could be in jeopardy. The only question he had was whom was naruto is anger directed at. If it was towards the village he didn't know if he could stop him.

"This is bad mizuki is big mouth might cause a fracture on the seal…if that happens"

The scroll was his second concern now, even tough it contained dangerous and powerful jutsu it was not as dangerous as an unleashed demon.

"Oh come now naruto don't look at me with those eyes"

Mizuki smirked and shock his head, the kid was angry but he was a loser he was no treat him.

"Iruka?"

"Oh don't worry about him naruto he is still alive but not for long"

Naruto turned to his teacher and saw his strained breathing, he was alive but knocked out, pushing iruka away from his body, he pulls out the shuriken and turns towards muzuki.

"Oh you want to fight me little beast?"

"No, I'm going to kill you!"

He throws the shuriken and mizuki side steps avoiding it, it seem that the brat is anger is not directed at the village but at him, he smiles, this would make things simple, he could take both of them out at once.

"You're a joke kid and as soon as I kill you iruka is next"

"You are the one who will die in this place"

"Oh and how will you do that?"

"I think I can muster enough strength to beat you"

Mizuki laughed and then he felt a familiar aura, he looked closely and saw the boy is body shaking, something was wrong especially when naruto is chakra could be seen. Naruto cranked his neck and smiled, the smile faded and along side it naruto, mizuki went into ninja mode and then felt a fist connect with his face. His head snapped backwards but he managed to twist and look at the place were he felt the hit had come from, but he saw nothing there. He turned around and saw naruto is feet right before it connected with his face sending him crashing into one of the trees.

"H-how?...you couldn't even use clones how can"

"There not clones fool"

His eyes widen and he reached for his 2nd shuriken, as he was about to unleash it naruto moved faster than any human could move and appeared beside him holding the shuriken with his own hand, the blade didn't even cut trough his hand.

"H-how is this possible!?"

"I had a good teacher"

Naruto put pressure on his hand and the shuriken shattered; mizuki looked at him horror in his eyes and naruto smiled.

"Y-your really are a monster"

"Yeah I am"

He threw a punch at mizuki but it never connected, it connected with the three that was behind mizuki the three immediately shattered and then crumpled to the ground, mizuki let go of the shuriken and jumped away from naruto, the boy no it could not be a boy. It was the nine tails; it had to be the demon.

"N-naruto?"

Iruka had managed to open his eyes and gazed at the blond, naruto turned towards him and smiled.

"Glad your awake sensei, now you can see what I learned from that scroll"

"Huh?"

"Don't underestimate me!"

Mizuki rushed towards naruto who smiled, focused, and unleashed some of his chakra, mizuki is eyes widen when he felt a force pushing him backwards, it was something invisible to the eye that had pushed him away from the boy.

"That's my line, but let me show you what I was talking about"

"W-what?"

"SHADOW CLONE JUTSU!"

The forest filled with clones and iruka is eyes widen, the kid had created solid clones, he had mastered a technique that only a few people knew how to use. The clones began to beat down on mizuki and in a couple of minutes it was over, naruto fell to one knees, he had used way to much chakra and despite his reserves he knew that he had reached his limit.

"N-naruto"

Turning towards iruka he smiled and gave him a thumbs up, iruka nodded and threw him something, catching it he smiled when he saw his teacher is headband.

"I pass?"

"You did"

Back in the village the hokage smiled and calmed the shinobi gathering out side the hokage tower, he smiled and told them that every thing was okay, it seem that naruto had handle the situation and as much as the other shinobi protested his decision to call of the search a few stern words made them all disband. Now all he needed to do was talk to naruto and ask him were he had learned to fight like he had fought tonight, the boy seem to be keeping more than his pain hidden.

The next morning naruto looked at the instruction package that iruka had given him; he had to take a picture and fill out his bingo card, which would be empty since he was a new shinobi. Scheduling an appointment with the photographer how ever seem to be ratter difficult as he had already taken the pictures of those who had graduated on the day of the original test, but with a little help from the hokage he had managed to make an appointment for later in the day.

Now all that was left was the interview and the presentation of his document to the hokage. The old man would evaluate and welcome him as a new shinobi, but the truth was that the meeting had been made so that the hokage could ask naruto a few questions; regarding what he had seen the night iruka handed his head band to naruto, the boy had showed skill which were well beyond his years.

"Naruto"

Arriving at the hokage is office he saw that it was only him and the old man; he smirked and wondered what this was about.

"Have my documents all set"

"No stupid mask?"

"Nah thought I make it easy on you"

Sarutobi smiled and signaled him to take a seat, doing as instructed naruto sat down and smirked, there was something more going on here.

"So how did you do it?"

"Training"

Sarutobi smirked, he knew he was going to get such an answer, naruto was always secretive even as a young boy he would always hide or tell lies to hide his true were a bouts. The thing that worried the hokage most was not that the boy was training but the who that was doing the training, there were too many shinobi out there who would try to use him as a weapon, mizuki was a test that there were far too many un trust worthy people out there.

"With whom?"

"A friend, look old man I don't have time for this I"

"PREPARE TO DIE!"

Naruto jumped out of his chair and saw a small thing jump from the door way straight into the hokage, the old man moved quickly and just held out his hand stopping the blur, which it turned out was a small kid.

"Konohamaru"

"Let go old man, let me beat you so I can become fifth hokage!"

Naruto smiled and raised an eyebrow, the kid was the hokage is grandson, he had seen him walking around the village with that four eye pervert following around, he believe it was his teacher.

"If were done here?"

"Hey stop interrupting us!"

"Shut up brat!"

Faster than the hokage or konohamaru could see naruto was in front of the kid smacking his head. He smiled and waved good-bye to the old man and the kid, far as he knew he was done here, he had to go to the school and see who is assigned instructor would be.

"Who was that guy?"

"That was naruto uzumaki"

"He hit me!"

"That he did"

In hitting him naruto had earned the boy is respect and a follower, but hat would be until his grandfather would let him down and his punishment would be done with.

SCHOOL GROUNDS

Naruto smiled, this was the first time he had been early in his life, the classroom was almost empty and there was almost no one around the school. Getting inside the room he sat down on his seat and waited for some one to arrived, one of the passing janitors shoot him a dirty look and he smiled showing off his canine teeth. The man rushed off and he smiled, he always did have a knack for scaring people off.

"Naruto what are you doing here? This isn't for drop outs, this is"

"Open you lazy eyes shikamaru"

Pointing to his head band he smirked and turned his eyes to the front, ever since graduating he had an indescribable feeling of just wanting to get out there and finished what he started so long ago, he smirked and shock his head. He was so close to achieving his goal that he didn't have time to pull stupid pranks, guess he had grown up a bit after all. Before shikamaru could say any thing else, the rustling of running distracted them, both of them turned to the back door were the two girls rushed in. sakura, and ino had arrived.

"Look at that still competing at every thing"

Shikamaru smiled and walked off to his own seat, naruto nodded and turned back to the front, there was no point in fawning over a girl if he was to achieve his goal, after all once he became hokage he could be able to get any girl he wanted. That touched another cord inside him that made him smiled, since when had he started to think so clearly? Sure, he had noticed changes but deam that was right down grown up thinking right here, he smiled smugly and nodded to himself; naruto uzumaki was going to do all right.

"MOVE IT!"

He felt something getting closer and before he realized it his instincts kicked in, turning around he grabbed hold of the hand that was reaching towards him and pushed it away. Sakura was pushed a few feet behind and naruto looked surprised, why would she rush him like that?

"S-sakura?"

"Yeah it's me you dolt so why don't you watch it!"

"Why were you rushing towards me like that?"

"Towards you? Ha, I was rushing toward…ah"

Dismissing him completely she walks right passed him and looks at sasuke, naruto rolls his eyes, of course she would go over to the one guy every girl wanted. Shaking his head, he walks away from the two and walks behind the classroom, spotting a sit next to one of the other student he smiles and leans down.

"Say is this seat taken?"

"N-no…no I no i-it not"

"Good cuz I think I just dodge a bullet"

His words become reality when ino rushed passed him and she and sakura start to argue along with the majority of the girls in the room, he smiles at the girl beside him and sees that she unlike the others isn't rushing any were but is some what frozen stiff.

"Ah you ok..Ah…hinata right?"

She feels the whole room go black and naruto frowns, the girl just passed out.

In the hokage tower the third looks at the crystal ball and frowns, at the sight. This bunch of new genin seem be a mess. He rolled his eyes and took a deep breath.

"As usual naruto is in the middle of a mess"

The crystal ball showed naruto screaming his heart out calling for help, while the other looked at him as if he was insane, those who saw hinata on the ground thought that he had done something to her. To which they began to ask him question he had no answers for, all the while he just kept shaking the girl hoping to wake her. Luckily, iruka arrived and managed to sort the whole thing out, but he did have to separate the two, as it was unknown why naruto is presence had caused hinata to faint. As for the white eye girl she still could not get her head around the fact that naruto knew her name and went to sit with her.

"Now that were all calm and back in out seats lets get started, as you all know you are all shinobi now. To get here you all face difficult task and hardships; but what will come next will be far more difficult. Now you're only Genin, first level ninjas; all the genin will be group in three man squads which will be lead by a Jounin an elite ninja"

So it was a tree man team or man girl what ever, naruto looked at the class room and frowned, no one seem to like him and for that matter he knew no one, sure he hung around them at school, knew there names but that was about it. This three person team was sounding more and more frustrating the more he thought about, closing his eyes he just hope that who ever he was stuck with wouldn't faint on the spot.

"Team 7, Naruto Uzumaki, Haruno Sakura, Sasuke Uchiha"

He glanced at the two and wondered what they would be like, he knew sakura fairly well as he had obsessed about her ever since he meet her, but he knew nothing about sasuke nor did he care, the guy always gave him some weird ass vibes. Glancing at haruno, he saw the glare she sent him and he smirked, so she still remembered all those times he had bid for her affection, good for her since he was not going to doing any of that any time soon.

Breaking for lunch they all headed in there separate way and naruto found himself wondering what the others in his team would be like, seeking them out he found sasuke on one of the near by lunch stalls, he smiled and jumped just out side the window the boy was leaning against.

"What do you want?"

"Just wanting to get to know my team mate is all"

"Get lost"

"W-what?"

"I don't need to know you, but I do need to warn you"

"Warn me?"

"Just don't get in my way loser"

Naruto was taken back but smiled, shaking his head he jumped off, no point in getting into an argument with the uchiha, he was so self-centered what ever words he would say would have no effect on him, rushing towards his next meeting he hoped to have better success. He just hoped sakura wouldn't punch him before he could talk, jumping out of the building, he landed right behind her and smiled, luck was on his side today.

"Hey sakura, since were in the same group I was thinking we could have lunch together and get to know each other"

"Why would I eat lunch with you? Naruto you're annoying"

She turned around and began to call of her beloved uchiha, naruto smiled and shock his head, nice team he got there. One was obsessed with sasuke and the other was obsessed with sasuke, just what he needed a possible stalker and a jerk, he smiled and walked off. Spotting a couple of others he saw hinata and smiled, the girl seems to be trying to find her teammates.

"H-hey ah hinata!"

She froze and for a moment, he believed that she would faint again but luckily, she didn't. Letting out a breath of relief, he smiled and walked over to her. Hinata was in panic move, here she was close to naruto and all she could do was just stay up right and try not to faint, blushing from her previous memory, she mustered all the courage she had and managed to squeak out a hello.

"H-hello"

"You feeling ok?"

"Y-yes….I I am"

"Good I was worried there for a second"

"You w-w-were?!"

She squeaked and blushed three shades of red, naruto was feeling quite nervous by now, she seem to be a bit odd but he smiled. He liked her already.

"Yap so where's your team?"

"Off getting lunch"

"Oh well I"

There conversation was cut short when a dog lunched itself at him, moving quickly he managed to grabbed him mid jump and frowned at the mutt, just as he was about to put him down he saw a bug crawling on to his arm. The bug had a chakra signature. Frowning he snatched it with his other hand and looked at it, something was weird about it.

"Hey let akamaru go!"

"Who? The bug or the dog?"

Shino stepped right up to him and naruto pulled away, that kid always did freak him out, the boy raised his hand and then glanced at the hand that had the bug. Naruto smiled and nodded.

"Your friend here is putting off quite a chakra signature"

Shino seem to be taken back nodded.

"He is young"

"Here you go, oh and don't send more of them after me"

"As you wish"

The boy in the dark glasses looked at the kikai bug and smiled, it was un harm, he looked at naruto and saw the boy smiled at him, so naruto was not as clumsy as every one believes. Naruto for his part turned to kiba and threw him the dog. Shino raised an eyebrow, what could posses naruto to be nice to his bugs but not to kiba is dog?

"Hey dog breath give him a bath would you, he is starting to smell like you"

"Funny!"

Naruto smiled and jumped away from the three, he would go back to the class room and wait on his jounin instructor, after all none of his so call team mates wanted to get to know one another so who was he to argue. Unfortunately, the wait lasted longer than he had anticipated, he saw a guy with a beard appeared and take a squad, the man eyed him suspiciously and naruto smirked, he knew asuma from the hokage is office. When the red eye woman arrived however, he felt like mush, she was a knock out all right, and despite trying to take his eyes off her, he couldn't, closing his eyes he wondered if it was too late to change teams. 3 hours later, he wondered that same thing when his teacher arrived.

The one eye man peeked inside and saw the three with bored expression on there faces, entering he smiled and looked at each one, not exactly the welcome he had expected not from a loud mouth and a prankster at least.

"Lets see, how can I put this….my first impression is that you're a bunch of idiots"

"Yes well were not the ones who are late"

He looked at naruto and smiled, maybe there was hope for them after all.

Continued….


	2. Chapter 2

TEACHER II

The room was white as far as the eye could see, the atmosphere was thick and heavy, his legs hell his whole body felt heavy, breathing was hard and the room was hot as hell but every thing was to help him become stronger. In the room a day would amount to a year in the real world, an hour would equal a week, this was the perfect area to train, and his sensei had brought him in for two sessions already.

"Tired already?"

The man in question was smirking and floating above him, giving his goofy grind, naruto glared, he could float in here and he could barely jump and run, but taking into account his extra weight, he was glad that he could at least walk. Looking up at him, he smirked and focused his chakra only to have it fizzle out once more.

"I'm to tired I can't muster chakra, I felt a spark"

"That would be your two charkas not mixing well"

"Then how do I?"

"Force your own to emerge and let the other follow it"

"How!?"

A sudden flare of energy made naruto look up and freeze, his sensei had a big glowing energy ball floating on his left hand, he smirked and nodded.

"If you can't stop this you are going to get hurt, so ready?"

"What are you crazy!? I can't stop that!"

"One"

"Wait, wait give me a second already!"

"Two"

"Focus, focus, focus"

Naruto closed his eyes and his sensei smirked, the kid is chakra flared and he knew that he was going to do it, it would drain him but he was doing it, time to test how strong it was.

"Three"

Naruto is eyes widen and he groans when he sees the energy blast heading his way, putting his hand before him the energy makes contact with his hands and he feels as his own chakra begins to flow trough his hands, its as if he is doing it by instinct. The two energies connect and much to his surprised, he managed to keep the energy ball from striking him.

"Good now focus and push out your chakra towards the attack!"

"I…..I don't know if I can…….its too strong!"

"Then push more chakra into your defense!"

"AAAAAAAAHHHHH"

A rush of blue chakra follows the scream, seconds latter the energy ball is repelled back and naruto lands with a thud on the ground.

"So, tired?"

Naruto nods and his sensei smiles.

"I did it….h-how?"

"You have taken your first steps into controlling your chakra flows, you made a choice and pulled on your own chakra, you didn't rely on that second one, plus you managed to expel your ki out of your body"

"So goku-sensei How bout a break?"

"Sure thing kid, next training session is you and piccolo"

"Oh man"

Chapter II

"TEST"

Heading to the roof tops naruto looked at the teacher seated in front of them and frowned, the teacher had been staring at them for a while now and looked to be a bit confused. Kakashi for his part was confused, he had been given other squads before but beside the fact that none of them had passed he had never gotten to do this bit before, he just went right down to business gave them the bell test and was done with it but these two weren't just some run of the mild genin. Oh no the two brats were special cases, one was a gifted genius whom he had a personal interest in and the other was a demon container that was still some what of a mystery to every one. Yeah this team he would approach differently.

"All right why don't you introduce yourselves, one at a time"

"Why?"

Kakashi frowned at naruto and was about to reply when he saw the blond shooting him a skeptical look, so the kid was not as open as he had hoped. Then again with a life like his it was no wonder he didn't want to open up.

"So I can get to know you better"

"Right, don't you have our personal records and stuff like that?"

"Look kid just tell me about yourself ok"

He was about to reply when sakura elbowed him on the side, turning towards her he sent her a glare and she returned it. She was annoyed at naruto for not wanting to cooperate with there new instructor, it was already late and if those two continued on going the way they were going then they could be there all night. Turning towards her new instructor, she smiled.

"I don't understand what you want to know about us sensei"

Turning towards the pink haired girl he smiled, at least one of them had sense to respect there teacher, and listen to what he had to say, turning towards her he began to explain in more detail what he wanted to know.

"Things you like things you hate, dreams for the future hobbies, things like that"

Naruto rolled his eyes; oh, this was rich he was going to get to know what his so call teammates wanted to become. Looking at sakura he smirked and shock his head, he knew what she wanted, but it was time to mess with the teacher again.

"I don't get it, why don't you go first so we can understand it better"

The smug smirk he gave his teacher was rewarded with an annoyed look, kakashi knew that the brat was going to come up with something else to make his day that we bit more difficult. God how he had hoped the kid was an idiot, it turns out he was not as much of an idiot but a kid who kept to himself.

"Well my name is hatake kakashi, things I like and things I hate……I don't feel like telling you that. My dreams for the future…never thought about it as for my hobbies I have lots of hobbies"

"Well that wasn't very useful you didn't tell us any thing"

He shrugged and pointed at naruto time to stop wasting time and get down to it.

"Ok your turn"

"My name is naruto uzumaki, I like ramen and I hate how long it takes to cook, my hobbies are a lot and as for dream well I will become hokage"

Kakashi frowned, that hadn't told him much and by the looks of it that had been the kid is plan, since he had not given them any info on himself he had done the same, he had given him bull and kakashi groaned. The only real thing he could take from naruto is introduction was the fact that he wanted to be hokage and liked ramen, not very informative. Turning towards the pink hair girl, he frowned when he saw her gaze fixed on the uchiha. Another dead end. Passing trough her oh so informative chat he turned to the special interest, he should at least have something interesting to say. Naruto was clearly not going to be given any more details about his life, as for the girl she was more interested in boys than ninja training.

"My name is sasuke uchiha, I hate a lot of things and I don't like any thing, what I have is not a dream because I will make it a reality I'm going to restore my clan and destroy a certain some one"

"In that order or what?"

Kakashi looked at naruto who seem to be bored out of his mind, he was scratching his ear and looking at the sky as if wondering when all of this was going to be over, sasuke is reaction to his question was a glare that didn't even faced naruto.

"What did you say?"

"Ok then, let's move on shall we"

He thought as much from sasuke, but to have an avenger on his team was not going to be easy, looking at the other two he frowned and shock his head. All of them were hard cases, a girl who wanted to just become a ninja to be with a boy, a brat who is mentality was as weird, and complex as it was messed up, this was a fun team. So now that his words had distracted the argument between sasuke and naruto he turned to his lecture.

"Good your each unique and have your own ideas, well have our first mission tomorrow"

"What kind of mission?"

"Survival exercise"

Naruto was confused they had done those in the academy what use would it be to do them again, sakura is protest made it clear that at least the girl was thinking on the same wave length.

"I thought we were going on a real mission not more practice, we already did this in the academy"

"This isn't like the academy"

Naruto frowned, so he was going to test them already, good he wanted to punch the smug right out of his sensei.

"So what kind of training?"

Sakura was worried, like sasuke had said this guy was a joinin and if he was going to test there survival skill then they would be in for some serious trouble, it was best she find out what that survival mission entailed so she could be better prepared. Unfortunately all her new teacher did was chuckle to himself and looked at them with a serious expression, not good at all.

"Of the 27 graduates that came here only 9 will actually be accepted as genin the others that fail will be sent back to the academy, this is a make it or break it test, and your chances are not that good"

So it was worse than she thought and judging the reaction of her fellow teammates, they were as surprised as she was, naruto clenched his fist and slammed them to the ground; what the hell had he worked so hard for in the first place. Standing up he glared at his teacher who just stood there calmly observing him, it seem he had finally gotten a reaction out of the brat.

"That's crazy we worked hard to get here what the hell was the graduation test for!?"

He had heard how the kid had failed the test three times and how his mastery of shadow clones had impressed iruka enough to actually pass him. Therefore, it was understandable that the kid would be a little freaked out with the whole idea of a new test popping out of no were.

"Oh that, it was to select candidates who might become genin, that's how it is, I decide if you pass or fail. Be at the designated training spot at 5 A.M and bring your ninja gear"

Naruto frowned, he had heard enough of this, with out another word he walked out, sasuke and sakura looked at him and then turned towards kakashi who just shook his head. The kid had to be terrified of this new development, after failing so much he was not used to passing and now it seem that when he had finally passed and achieve his goal another test presented itself, one that would make him a loser all over again.

"I guess that's it your dismissed, oh and don't eat any thing HEARD THAT BRAT!"

Naruto just kept walking, he had a lot of thinking to do, sasuke clenched his fist tighter and shock his head, after finally achieving his goal he still had a chance to fail and be sent back to the academy, that could not happened not if he wanted to achieve his goal of restoring his clan and killing his brother. Sakura looked as sasuke and swore that she would pass and be by his side no matter what test kakashi put them trough her love for sasuke would aid her, she was sure of it.

NEXT MORNING 5 A.M

The three arrived early, there sensei did not.

NEXT MORNING 6 AM

Still nothing.

NEXT MORNING 7 A.M

"Good morning every one ready for your first day?" 

Three death glares and he was sure that no excuse was going to save him, so he decided to just for go his excuse and get right down to business, shame really it was a good one. A cat and something else.

"Ok let's get started"

If any thing was learned this day was that the man would always be late, pretty sad when you thought about it, naruto clenched and un clenched his fists, this was taking way to long. He needed to do this now before he exploded, it was bad enough that he had stayed up all night thinking about what possible test kakashi could come up with; but to wait for him the entire morning had really fried up his nerves. Sasuke looked at him and frowned, the kid was pulsing with killer intent, he did not even notice, and by the looks of it, sakura had noticed as well as she had backed away from naruto. Kakashi frowned; he might have gotten naruto overly exited by all of this, the frown how ever turned into a smiled when he thought of the possibilities that would bring.

Walking to a near by stump he pulled a clock and sets it on it, its time to begin the test, he can sense naruto is killer intent and some what nervous aura, so he was nervous good that would mean that he was going to try that much harder.

"Here we go it set for noon, your assignment is very simple you have to take these bells from me, if you can't get them by noon you will not get lunch. Then you will be tied to those post and watch as I eat my lunch in front of you"

Naruto glanced at the clock and frowned, he was hungry pissed and really annoyed. Oh, he could not wait until he gave the word; sakura how ever snapped his mind away from thinking of the fight ahead by pointing out that kakashi had only two bells.

"Why are there only two bells? I mean there are three of us"

Kakashi smiled, it seem the bright one of the bunch was the girl. Good maybe she would catch on and tell the two, if they would listen.

"Well that simple. At least one of you will fail and go back to the academy then again all three can flunk out, so you better come at me with every thing you got"

He smiled when he saw naruto is smirk and sasuke is serious expression, it seems that out of the three the only one who had the slightest chance at passing was the girl; if only she was not so focused which sasuke she might become a good ninja. The other two were too focused on the battle and not on what the test was about, either way he would see how good they were.

"Every thing?"

Naruto like the sound of that, sakura saw the smirk and then turned to sasuke he had the same glint in his eyes and kakashi did not seem to be doing any thing to stop them from thinking of using real weapons.

"Yes every thing, you can use any weapons including shuriken, if you're not prepared to kill me you won't be able to take the bells"

Sakura frowned, this had gone from dangerous to plain crazy, the two boys beside her were ready to just get it over with and the instructor seem to just be waiting for them. This test, it was either just that or something more, perhaps he wanted to try them out see which one could actually become a good ninja but then why the hell were there assigned to teams of three? There was something more here, now all she needed was time to put the pieces together.

"This is going to be fun"

"Says the class clown, the weakest link the loser"

"Just say start and well see who is the real loser hatake"

Naruto smiled at the look the joinin gave him, sure, it was disrespectful to call his teacher by his first name but he didn't care, it was time to piss off this smug jerk and have him show him what he really got. For his part kakashi just smirked under his mask the punk was going to get the beating of a lifetime.

"All right, let's get started"

HOKAGE TOWER

Iruka looked at the hokage with a frown, he needed answers but he didn't know how to just come out and ask the man, the old man smiled, he knew what the young ninja wanted to know and on his eyes, he had become one of the few he could trust regarding naruto. It was clear that iruka wanted to know why he had put naruto in kakashi is team when it was clear that the sharingan user was so devoted to sasuke, truth was he had no choice but to put him in kakashi is squad.

"So will he pass them?"

"I do not know, as you know many of the council want naruto to fail hence why they pressured me into putting him with hatake"

"He hasn't passed a single team has he? But then why put sasuke with him as well?"

"Because there are way of letting some one pass and failing others"

Iruka frowned at that and shock his head, it couldn't be true, how could the hokage let the council do this? Naruto did not deserve this; he had worked so hard and now.

"Which test will he be given them?"

"The only one that assures that 2 may pass and one will fail"

Iruka frowned and clenched his fist just a bit tighter the bell test, it was supposed to show the genin how to work as a team but if two of the candidates were gifted enough and made a good impression they got to pass and the third would be sent back to the academy. It was a clever test and it could work both ways, it was rumored that sarutobi had created it.

"The bell test"

"Yes. Sasuke has a guarantee passing grade; the only two at risk are sakura and naruto"

Iruka smirked and shock his head, no the only one at risk here was naruto.

"Why didn't you do something?"

Taking a puff of his piper sarutobi frowned at the question but knew that he owed this man and explanation, he might have allowed this fixed test to go on but it was to show the council just how much power naruto had, that little interview in his office had told him all he needed to do regarding the boy.

"Because I believe that just like jiraya he will pass"

"Sir?"

"I gave my students the same test and even though jiraya failed the test he showed me enough to let him pass"

"But sir naruto…he is"

"He will be fine I am sure of it"

TRAININ GROUNDS

Ninja were supposed to be able to conceal there movements and be able to hide effectively, two of them knew this very well as he couldn't tell were they were but one of them stood In front of him a scowl on his face. The loser wanted to play it seem, but then again naruto was never one to follow the rules.

"Let's go"

"You know you're a little weird"

"Yeah I am"

"Ok then lesson one, taijutsu the physical part"

Naruto smirked he wanted physical he would show him physical, rushing towards him he saw the gray hair reached for his pocket, he smirked so this was unlike any other mission. Hatake was deceiving him to get him lured into a false sense of security, well time to show him how good he really was. Kakashi is fingers touched his book and then BAM he felt a fist slammed against his right cheek, the jounin is body was sent sailing trough the air and into the ground, rolling and coming to a stop kakashi looked at the blond who stood a few feet in front of him.

(How did he move so fast?)

On the forest beside the clearing sasuke is eyes widen, he did not know what had just happened, one minute naruto was charging towards kakashi the next he was gone and kakashi was on the ground. Sakura is thoughts still couldn't figure out what the test was about but if what she had just seen gave her any indication it meant that naruto might be able to get a bell. Kakashi stood up and unclenched his jaw, the kid moved fast and hit hard, it seem he was not going to be able to read his book.

"GOOD!"

Naruto frowned when kakashi vanished, oh so teach was going to show off his moves, good he wanted to dust off his old moves, he had never tried fighting a shinobi with techniques from another world but this was as good a time as any to show off. Closing his eyes, he sensed kakashi is chakra behind him, turning around he lifted his leg to do a spinning kick and was surprised when he connected with a log, substitution jutsu. The residual chakra had fooled him but not enough. He could sense the real deal. He felt kakashi is chakra circling behind him, kicking the log towards his direction he smiled and the log went flying at kakashi who was now moving behind naruto. Kakashi turned to face naruto and was surprised to find the log he had used in his substitution jutsu rushing towards him at an alarming rate.

(He kicked the log towards me as if it was a soccer ball, what kind of move is that?)

"Move fast teach!"

Kakashi felt the presence behind him and cursed, the kid was behind him now, his speed was nearly at his level but that couldn't be, he was just a genin and a bad one at that, according to the reports any way.

"Very well then!"

He spun around and threw a punch at naruto he ducked but saw his mistake, avoiding the punch had put him straight in the path of the log he had kicked towards kakashi, twisting in mid air he managed to avoid it but now his back was to the ground and kakashi was on top of him.

"Got you!"

The kick was given fast and hard, naruto found himself rushing towards the river and smiled, perfect. He let the momentum carry him straight into the water. Kakashi frowned; he had let himself fall into the river on purpose but for what reason? Looking around the area, he saw nothing out of the ordinary and then it happened, the whole deam river exploded and a barrage of naruto's went flying towards him, shadow clones.

(Fifty clones? That is not possible he should not have that much chakra!)

The clones landed in front of him giving smug looks, kakashi smirked, the kid was using a forbidden jutsu but that didn't mean that he had the upper hand.

"Great technique but I don't think you can maintain it for very long, you talk like you're the best naruto but your still the worst student, you can't beat me with this jutsu"

"I don't need to beat you"

Kakashi froze, turning around he saw one naruto standing behind him, a bell in his hand. The clones were just a distraction from the real deal and now naruto had one of the bells, this was not supposed to happen this way, yet it had and the big question was how he had managed it, had he been over confident? Had he underestimated the kid? No, there was something more. Naruto had moved in complete silence, he had not even felt his presence come from behind him, that was nearly impossible to do to a joining and yet this kid had done it to him.

Sasuke could not believe what he had seen, the loser the dead last had actually gotten one of the bells, but it was impossible, he had not even seen naruto come up behind kakashi, how the hell had he moved so fast and so silently? Sakura stood in disbelief as well. Naruto couldn't of possibly done what he had just done he was never that good in class to being with but, he had done it. Seeing naruto is abilities had made her rethink her plan, she had figured out what the test was about, but now she needed some one to help her implements her plan. She just hoped that naruto would play ball after all he had just gotten one of the bells and as far as he knew that was that. Kakashi turned towards the boy and saw the other clones vanished he frowned when he realized that the naruto behind him, the one that had gotten the bell was the real deal.

"How did you?"

"Come now you didn't see?"

Kakashi clenched his jaw, the kid was way too smug for his own good but he had actually gotten a bell, maybe he did have something to be smug about. However, that didn't answer his question, who had trained naruto? Oh, he was no fool he knew that his technique was formed during a training exercise. There was no way that naruto could have come up with it himself, this showed experience and hard work, not only in his plan but on his skills as well, he moved faster than any genin should move and had the strength to match it. This little genin is abilities were the result of some one is teachings.

"Your reports are either misleading or you have been holding back"

"I haven't been holding back, that deam clone test is what held me back"

Kakashi frowned, why would one test hold him back for two times? It was not too complicated to create a clone, not to mention the fact that shadow clones were not only a forbidden jutsu but was a high-level technique, so why had he been able to master it and not just plain old clones? It didn't make sense.

"The clone jutsu? But the shadow clones"

"Are far more complicated yes well you don't have an over flow of chakra"

Kakashi frowned, an over flow of chakra? That was impossible, no chakra coils were that thick, yet if he had problems with chakra control then that would explain why he would have trouble making simple basic clones, they required a precise amount of chakra while shadow clones were not as precise. The shadow clones required a hell of a lot of chakra hence why it was a forbidden technique, used to many chakra and you die. Looking at naruto he raised an eyebrow, so the kid had an over amount of chakra, that was good now all he needed to do was help him utilize it.

"I see I UNGH!"

Naruto turned around and looked as his teacher was impaled by shuriken. The sight surprised him but then he felt kakashi is chakra move far off into the three line and smiled, it look like sasuke had been found out, good that idiot deserved to be thought a lesson, he was about to turn around when he felt a familiar aura from the other side of the three lines. Sakura is signature, then he saw a glint in the three lines and frowned, she was signaling him, but why? Looking around he tried to sense kakashi is chakra. He was out of range so he could go to sakura with out revealing were she was, it seem sakura wanted to talk so he would talk.

"What is it?"

Sakura froze and turned around he was behind her? But that was impossible she hadn't taken her eyes off him for a second, she hadn't even blinked and he just faded. Yet here he was behind her with a bored expression on his face, it seem that she had been right in her assumption that he believed the test was over.

"How did you?"

"I can move real fast"

"Funny, now listen up naruto the test is not over"

"What?"

That had caught his attention, glancing at sakura he could see that she was dead serious about this, so turning his full attention to her he listened and before long he had to agree with her conclusion, something that surprised sakura. Usually the blond would just daze off or not care now it seem that he had mature some what, but in just two days? That was very unlikely, but maybe he was just like her…hiding who he truly was.

"I think it's about team work"

"So I just blew the test?"

"No, individual talent counts as well but if we are to get the last bell we need to do it as a team"

"Fine then let's get him"

He was about to rush off when sakura is hand on his shoulder stopped him, turning towards her he saw the blush on her face and knew what was coming.

"We need sasuke"

Sakura could not leave her crush behind; he needed to pass so they could be together after all.

"Of course we do"

Naruto rolled his eyes and sakura frowned, he was much too cocky and sarcastic for his own good, slapping him on the shoulder, she walked right pass him and humped.

"It's a test based on team work naruto"

"Sure sakura what ever you say"

He smiled and shakes his head; the girl would never change, well at least not too soon. He passed her and signaled her to follow him, after a couple of minutes she wondered if naruto knew were he was going, but when they discovered sasuke is head pocking from the ground she knew that the blond had lead them straight to the uchiha survivor question was how?

"There's your beloved and"

She was about to jump and naruto pulled her back, stupid girl had almost gave away there position, she glared at him but stopped her ranting when she saw him pointing to the far off forest area.

"There is kakashi, if you want our plan to work go distract him and ill tell sasuke"

"Why should I go?"

"Because if I go then he will know something is up, I have no reason to attack him I already have a bell"

He was right and sakura frowned, how the hell was she supposed to fight kakashi?

"But I can't"

"Just lead him away ill send one of my clones to aid you"

She nodded and rushed towards the area were kakashi was looking. beside her she saw one of naruto is clones smiling at her, this was weird, to think that he was going to aid her. Kakashi turned to the sound behind him and smirked, sakura had come to aid her crush; good he would get the two in one sweep. He rushed towards her and smiled, a simple genjutsu would suffice with her, leaving the area he failed to notice the blond jumping towards sasuke.

"Hello sasuke"

Sasuke glared at the blond and began to pull himself from the ground, naruto smiled when he saw that he hadn't asked for help. He was so arrogant that naruto knew he wouldn't go along with there plan to take down kakashi, but he had to at least try.

"Hey listen, sakura found out what the test is about"

"Huh?"

"Were supposed to be doing this as a team"

Sasuke smirked, turning around he gave naruto one of his usual glares, he didn't need any body, especially not a loser like naruto and sakura. Besides if naruto had managed to get a bell on his own then so would he.

"A while ago I touched a bell, next time I will get one"

"Look there isn't enough time left to go at it alone"

"I don't care I don't need your help….i'm the only one who can"

"What?"

"I am an avenger and I need this training there is no time to be set backs, I need to be stronger than him to win"

"Look I don't"

That was that sasuke rushed off and naruto glared, if the jerk was not going to help them then he was going to help sakura, teamwork, right so be it. He rushed off towards the direction of the chakra signatures and smiled, the clone was doing a good job in distracting kakashi, but now he needed to find the real sakura. Rushing towards the forest area, he found her a few feet behind kakashi and the fake naruto. Sakura smiled and waved at naruto who nodded; landing beside her, he smirked and shook his head.

"Sasuke is not coming"

"But then….how do we?"

"I'll help you, you better act quick he already figured out that he is chasing a clone"

"Right so what do we do?!"

"Hide"

She raised an eyebrow and he smiled, not sure, of herself she headed off and did what he had told her to do. Hiding behind one of the bushes she saw naruto waiting for kakashi, the silver haired joinin arrived and frowned, the blond was the one distracting him? Then that would mean. He smiled and shakes his head, so they had figured it out, looking around he found sakura, he could feel her hiding in one of the bushes below, naruto smiled and cleared his throat.

"You should be looking at me teach"

"Because she will get to me by surprised is that right?"

"No because I will"

Kakashi turned around and saw naruto behind him, with yet another of his bells around his fingers, turning towards the other naruto it vanished in a puff of smoke and was replaced by none other than sakura. Naruto jumped towards sakura and handed her a bell, the girl jumped up and hugged him, the chakra kakashi had felt was a fake, Kakashi smiled the two had gotten a bell and it seem that the gifted one was out of luck. Rushing towards the memorial stone he saw the boy sitting down beside the clock with a frown on his face, it was clear that he was frustrated but the frustration turned to anger when he rushed at him with a kunai in hand. Kakashi jumped behind him and before sasuke knew what had happened he was tied to one of three stumps, naruto and sakura looked at kakashi waiting for his response.

"So we are in a dilemma, while sakura and naruto both showed that they understood the basics of team work, it was clear that sasuke didn't"

"Team work?"

"Yes, but then while sakura and naruto worked like a team it didn't happen until naruto accomplished his goal on his own, your not supposed to do every thing on your own naruto"

Kakashi frowned at the far off look on the boy is face, it was as if he knew no other way than to do things alone, and if what he had heard was true that was pretty much all the boy knew. It was sad to think that all the kid knew was how to be alone and do things on his own because no one would pay him the time of day, but what of his trainer? Didn't he teach him teamwork?

"You're in squads of three because you're supposed to aid one another"

"W-what happens now?"

Sakura was worried, she was in dangerous grounds, if sasuke failed they would be separated and she would be in a team with naruto.

"You have another shoot, but sasuke gets no lunch so after that you can all come at me and defeat me in battle, if you manage to overpower me in any way as a team then you pass"

With that, he left and wondered if they would pass this test, the only problem was that if sakura was the one who gave sasuke some food then he would still have to fail them. Why? Well because her feelings towards the boy were clouded by her romantic feelings towards him, this had to be done by naruto, if they boy offered him food then they would pass if he didn't they would fail. Sasuke could contribute to it as well; he would have to prove that he would be a team player just by his actions alone.

"I'm sorry sasuke I should off"

"Don't apologize to him sakura, he had his chance and didn't take it, this is all his fault"

"NARUTO HOW DARE YOU!!"

"He is right….if I listened we wouldn't be in this mess"

At that even kakashi had to do a double take, the kid was actually admitting to be wrong. For some one like sasuke to admit that he was wrong was unprecedented, the arrogant boy actually admitted that he was wrong, and if he knew naruto, the blond was going to rub it in his face.

"Don't worry about it, but here eat up, this things is about being a team so let's give him a beating of a life time"

This time kakashi fell down completely, naruto wasn't rubbing it in? that was just well hell had officially frozen, naruto was showing a maturity that was well impressive the kid was such a screw up and his file was filled with such bad notes that this kind of thinking and actions were rare so rare that they were none existing on his record. Just another thing kakashi had to wonder about, how many people had underestimated the kid; after all, he wasn't showing any of the characteristics that were on his file, but that kind of thinking was going to have to left for another day he had a team to pass.

"Naruto is right; we should work together and show him what were capable off"

Kakashi was about to do his all impressive entrance when he fell down on his face, sakura had admitted that naruto was right and was not insulting him nor going head over hills for sasuke, ok now he knew that the devil was cursing the three genin.

"Ah? Teach you ok?"

"Shook over dose ill be fine….but are you ready?"

Naruto smiled and untied sasuke, the uchiha turned towards him and thanked him with a nod, the three stood together ready to face him and kakashi had to smile, they were really planning on working as a team. Good.

"Very well then you all pass"

Tomorrow they would have there first mission and as such they needed to get ready and despite the invitation of his now sensei to go celebrate he had to decline, naruto saw the look of surprised on all of there faces and yet he could see the more inquisitive gaze of his teacher peering at him. Unfortunately, he wouldn't get any answers, not today. He needed to get away from them and fast so he apologized and walked off to the opposite direction, he hoped that his legs would hold out until he reached his home.

"That was strange"

Sakura looked at her sensei and saw the worry in his single eye, it seem he had spotted something else sasuke exchange glances with her and saw that he also had notice that something was off with naruto.

"That battle worn him out didn't it?"

"No….that's what worries me"

Kakashi is words made the two genin shiver, turning towards the blond boy, they saw that he was already gone, kakashi shock his head. The kid was full of surprises and no one had even noticed; this was a concern that he planed to share with the hokage. There was just no way a genin was that advance with out special help, he intended to find out just were naruto had gotten his training from and if the hokage knew nothing of this then there was another possibility he didn't even want to consider, one that would put all of them in jeopardy.

Naruto walked away from them and looked at his hands, his chakra was flowing too freely and was radiating to much energy for his body to contain, which meant that he had to let it out soon or he would suffer an over load to his chakra network. Something had happened in that battle he had felt a secondary surge of chakra one that he could not control, what frightened him was the fact that it felt as if it was trying to get out, to free itself.

"Hey you ok?"

Naruto looked at the woman in front of him and frowned, he hadn't sense her approach nor seen her, he nodded as a way of reply and side step to walk past her, but he felt a hand grab him and hold him in place. Turning towards her, he saw the red eyes not staring at him but at his hand. Following her gaze he saw what had caught her attention and his eyes widen, they had changed, his finger nails had turned to claws.

"W-what the hell…."

"Kid what?"

He pulled away from her and took two steps backwards, bringing his hand before his eyes, it was clear to the red eyed woman that he was trying to figure out what had happened to his hands. She looked passed his hands an finally recognized him, he was the nine tailed kid.

"Your naruto"

The voice startled and then much to her amazement he vanished before her eyes. Naruto re-appeared moments later in his house trying to calm his nerves, his hands his claws were slowly returning to normal but he didn't remember how it had happened in the first place, how they had turned and how he was now turning them back to normal it was as if some one else was doing it. Taking a deep breath he tried to figure out a way to think of all that he knew and try to put it all together to figure out what had happened.

"It can't can it?"

It couldn't be there was no way but before he could think about it any more a wave of pain rushed trough his body and he lost consciousness.

HOKAGE TOWER

Kakashi arrived and dropped off his file, the old man took a deep drag of his pipe and smirked, the report read just as he had hoped it would. Looking at the other Jounin on the room, he smiled and raised an eyebrow.

"Any thing else to add?"

Kakashi stepped forwards and told him of his concerns, upon hearing this kurenai is attention was draw to the sharingan user, if his description was accurate then what she had seen earlier in the night was no coincidence, there was something wrong with the container of the nine tails.

"I wish to know if he has had any special training"

The old man chuckled and shock his head, no naruto had not received any training, well that couldn't be true, after all the kid is skills were far beyond any genin, so some one had to have trained the boy. That how ever did not mean that a shin obi from the leaf had done it nor any other shin obi from the neighboring villages, if some one had trained naruto it was not from this world.

"No, no one wanted to train him"

Kakashi frowned, there was more to the hokage is words, a hidden meaning behind his words. Kurenai stepped forwards and cleared her throat, all heads turned towards her.

"I ran into him earlier tonight, I believe kakashi is concerns are well grounded"

Sarutobi turned towards kurenai, raised an eyebrow, and took a pause allowing her to continue, she took a deep breath. This was like speaking in front of the class room for the first time, after all she being a new Jounin and all was hard enough but to assert herself in a subject she knew nothing about made her just that bit more nervous.

"Do explain"

"Y-yes sir, ah I ran into him while on my way here at first I didn't recognize him but then I saw his claws"

"His claws?"

Kakashi turned towards her and she nodded, she didn't know what to think of it at first, maybe it was a side effect of him carrying the demon but now looking at the reaction of all of them, she knew that it was a new development. The hokage how ever seem to be un-affected, maybe perhaps he knew more about the subject that any one on the room.

"You said he used some chakra when he fought you?"

"Yes, he did, but how does that explain"

The old man chuckled and shock his head, these kind of meetings were the ones that made him feel every bit his age, he had learned from early on that naruto had tendencies that were less than human. Like the way he could smell and hear better than any shinobi, how he could heal almost instantly and his inhuman stamina. Those characteristics were not as noticeable as claws, but the way he ran and jumped were pretty noticeable, while others tended to jump using only there legs for impulse naruto ran and jumped on all fours; let's not also forget those whisker marks.

"That was a glimmer of the fox is chakra, I am sure you are all aware of the boy is whisker marks on his face?"

The four jounin nodded and sarutobi smiled, they seem to understand were he was going with the conversation; Gai how ever was the first one to speak up in his all so special style.

"HE WILL TURN INTO THE FOX!"

The cloud of rain that appeared above his head and the thunder clashing behind him made the rest of the room frown, some times they wised the man had more self-control.

"Calm down, he is not turning into the beast, right?"

Sarutobi nodded at his son, asuma seem to get were he was going, as did kurenai, the only problem was that kakashi seem concern.

"Naruto has no control over the chakras within him, his lack of control is due to the fact that the seal tries to merge the two, and this causes some pretty noticeable side effects"

"Whisker marks"

Sarutobi smiled and nodded kurenai seem to be the one who had the most open mind out of all of them, maybe it was the fact that she had not been directly involved with neither the fourth or naruto himself. That how ever didn't exclude the worry that he sensed coming from her, the third knew that in order to appease his elite he had to be clear with them, to tell them what he knew of the boy or else naruto would suffer even more.

"Bottom line, you don't need to worry about the demon. Naruto is seal still holds and even though now and then the chakra of the fox will alter his body and mess with him the demon cannot break trough the seal"

Unfortunately the shin obi did not look convince, this would only add to his problems, he needed to make a judgment call before things got out of hand. Kakashi was concern perhaps because he had seen the boy in action, what ever the case the problem needed to be resolved. Asuma on his part seem to feel pity for the boy, he had paid attention to his father is words, clenching his fist he shock his head, naruto didn't deserve this. On his part Maito Gai's seem to be somewhat confused, what father would do that to his own son; perhaps there was more to this story than what the hokage was telling them.

"If I might be as bold as to ask but….did the fourth knew of what would happened to the boy? Did he know what he would put him trough?"

Kurenai once again got the attention of all of them, sarutobi cursed inside; she was way to smart and as always asked the hard questions. Looking towards kakashi, he saw the far away look on his face, he knew almost the whole truth and yet refused to speak about it, some things were best kept hidden sarutobi had been a true believer of that philosophy but now things were different. The jounin were concern and were asking question that he knew would have to be answered, naruto had been trough enough and to have the elite looking at him as the others in the village did would only mean more hardship on his life. He wouldn't understand there change in demeanor nor there questioning gazes, this had to end now before any of it got out.

"What I speak here will stay in this room"

The four nodded and sarutobi took a deep breath.

"Kazama knew all the hardship the demon would put the boy trough, which is why he wished for the boy to be treated as a hero"

"A hero?!"

Kakashi smirked under his mask, gai and kurenai both looked at each other with confusion on there faces, gai is out burst had only been echoed by her own, the hokage couldn't be serious the boy had been treated as a pest and barely tolerated as it was. That couldn't be true, all the villagers believed him to be nothing but trouble and even tough kurenai was ashamed to admit it she herself had been somewhat repulsed by the abomination, the hokage seeing the conflict in gai and kurenai is faces decided to continue.

"We all know that did not happened, instead naruto was tortured at every turn. Which is why I can't let you let this latest development affect your treatment towards him, he has been trough enough both from the people of the village and the demon within him"

"I can understand the hardships the boy has been put trough, but are we sure that the demon is still contained within him? His skills in battle"

"You doubt that the seal still holds?"

Gai looked at kakashi who nodded, sarutobi frowned, it seem that the sharingan user still held concern regarding the seal is strength. slamming his fist on the desk before him he saw them all jump and turned there attention towards him, they were no longer staring at an old man smoking his piper no they were now staring at there leader at the hokage of there village. The anger and annoyance the man was irradiating made the four-jounin freeze.

"Kakashi you will no longer be uzumaki is instructor"

His eye widen and the other looked at the hokage is glare, it was not directed at neither of them and yet they all felt as if it was directed at each one of them. Asuma took a deep breath and shock his head, he knew that his old man had been there when kazama had sealed the demon in the boy; he was the one who had heard the last wish of the yellow flash. That is why his reaction was so vivid, but there was more, he knew his father all to well and he could see the disappointment when sarutobi glanced at kakashi.

"I can teach naruto now and then, my squad seems to tolerated him, shikamaru even seems to like the boy"

Sarutobi is anger seem to reside, taking a deep breath he nodded and then was surprised when Maito Gai spoke up in his usual manner.

"I too shall take the boy under my wing; if the seal has indeed been weak then I shall train the boy with the POWER OF YOUTH!"

"I do not wish for him to be removed from my team, I just…the concern I have for my team I believe is a valid one"

"The copy Nin afraid of a genin? Now I am interested, if it is possible I would also like to take a chance at seeing his abilities"

Soon all four of them were arguing and sarutobi was getting a headache, while kakashi debated and insisted that he was not frightened by the boy kurenai seem to only egg him on and be amuse by his childish behavior. Asuma and Gai how ever seem to be already planning on how to train the boy and perhaps establish how to strengthen the seal. The whole thing was as ridiculous as it was childish, but since he couldn't nip it in the butt it was time to see his what option he had, looking at the four a smile appeared on his face, did he say option? No not an option but options, it seem that he had four Jounins who were more than interested in the boy.

"You will each get a turn with the boy; give me your assessment by the end of the week"

They way he said left no room for discussion, all of them with the exception of kakashi were to take the boy for a day and assessed his skill; they were to report any an all anomaly regarding his chakra, physical characteristics and mental health. This caused a groan from both maito gai and asuma, kurenai on the other hand smirked, this was going to be quite the experience. Especially the way kakashi described him, this was going to be quite fun.

CONTINUED…………….


	3. Chapter 3

TEACHER III

"Come on kid stop messing around!"

"Hey I'm doing the best I can't!"

"MASEN-PO!"

The energy blast rushed towards the blond, naruto screamed and jumped away from the site of the blast. This guy was not kidding around and yet he knew no scratch that he could tell that the green guy was holding back. That is not how he wanted this session to be like; he wanted to show the man that he could hold his own and stand to fight as hard as he could. It seem how ever that no matter how much he had improved he had yet to reach one quarter of there level in both fighting skills and chakra or Ki manipulation.

"Stop with the blast already!"

"Until you can dodge with out hitting the ground"

Naruto cursed and jumped yet again, the blast were big and he couldn't clear the whole blast area before being thrown to the ground a few feet away from it, scraping across the ground he managed to stand up and look up at the namek grinning his fangs, sensing around he knew why. Looking upwards, he saw the whole sky filled with energy balls.

"Oh man"

"Either dodge them or stop them kid"

Naruto glared and focused, needed to remember what goku had told him, he needed to focus on his chakra, needed to cancel out the red one and focus on the blue one, feel it surging trough his body and then unleashed it trough his body. Opening his eyes he smirked when he felt his whole body filled with chakra, he couldn't clear the sky of the energy balls. Then they all came all at once, naruto groaned and shock his head, he could not dodge them all, he could try and stop them but if he knew piccolo and he did the green alien was going to give him a hard work out.

Focusing he could feel every single one rushing towards him, the first one from the left extending his hand he managed to hit it and sent it flying away from him. He cursed when his whole arm became numb, not enough chakra' then before he could even recover two more came, one from the right and one directly above him, one thing to do. He expanded his chakra and created a shield surrounding his body, the two blasts hit it dead on and broke it but the two energy balls also fizzle out. The namek floating on the sky smiled, the kid was getting good, but if that last blast had been, any indication the kid is chakra was going to run out soon.

Naruto on his part felt his chakra drop considerably, he couldn't muster enough to repel the next attacks but he could use it in another way, goku told him that they used there Ki to enhance both there strengths and speeds, he had tried it a couple of times but he had yet to master the technique.

"Heads up kid!"

Naruto looked up and shock his head, they were all coming at him at once from every direction, there was no way that he could counter them or stop them, not with the chakra he had now. So he needed to dodge them, focusing on his feet he felt a push and then sent he was high on the air, he had done it.

"Hey I did it!"

The explosion on the bottom how ever was too small and that is when he noticed that he had pushed just a bit too much chakra into his feet. So he was now high on top of the air and he had no way to stop his free fall.

"Relax kid, I got you"

"You know I got to learn how to fly one of these days"

TEACHER

CHAPTER III

"ASSESSEMENTS"

"Sasuke here, I'm at point b"

"Sakura here, I'm at point c"

Kakashi nodded and frowned when the deam thing jumped away from its original position, rushing after it he advised his team to move in and close off the target before it got away once again. Sure, it was dangerous to corner it but it had to be done, the two others in his team moved in closing off its escape routes, he smiled and rushed towards the target in second he had him in his hands and was handing it to sakura.

"Mission complete"

Sasuke glared at the cat in sakura is arms, stupid thing had managed to escape three times, this time how ever it didn't get away, sakura pulled the cat away from her body and the thing began to scratch and hiss.

"Stupid cat's gone mad!"

"Easy sakura, the cats just exited is all"

"Bottom line is we got him but I have to ask, kakashi how did naruto get out of this?"

Kakashi closed his eye and took a deep breath, he couldn't very well tell them the truth but he had to tell them something, he how ever didn't know what. After all, he couldn't very well tell them the truth; sasuke and sakura how ever were still waiting for an answer. Truth was naruto should be in kurenai is care right about now.

"He is studying his Genjutsu"

Training Grounds 9

Kurenai looked at her team and smiled, they seem to be doing all right, it was time to focus her attention on the boy beside her, to say that he was un happy with what had happened was an understatement, he was pouting and glaring at the ground. She smiled and wondered if he would even be here if the hokage had not order him to come, turning towards him she place a hand on his shoulder and smiled at him, naruto looked up and raised an eye brow.

"So naruto, kakashi tells me you're good at fighting"

"I don't know what you're talking about"

He knew all right but he hated the fact that kakashi had gone and blabbed to the old man about his abilities, naruto knew that if it were any other genin he or she wouldn't be in this mess. Special treatment thanks to the demon inside of him, how lucky was he. So here, he was with a woman whom he had fist thought to be attractive standing before him with a superior smirk on her face, she was a confident one all right and something told him that she was here to do more than to see his abilities in action.

"I know this is the last thing you wanted to do today but think of as an opportunity"

"To do what?"

"To learn of course"

He raised an eye brow and kurenai felt a bit disappointment that he found it so hard to believe her words, the kid seem to be un easy around others specially grown ups this being a direct order from the hokage seem to be making things worse. The kid was a loner she could tell that by just looking at him but she also knew that it was not by choice. After what had happened the night before she had been curious to learn more about naruto so she had asked the hokage for the kid is file. She wished she hadn't, the kid is file was as depressing as it was horrifying, from beatings to assassination attempts. The orphanage that held the boy did not only beat him but treated him as trash, she shivered at the images that came to mind and from the anger, she felt towards the hokage.

The old man had to have the power to stop it, but she knew that there were other things to consider; one of them was the high power the council members had. While it was true that the hokage was the leader of the village it was also true that he was subjected to pressure from the clans of the village. If he were to oppose them then he would lose there support, which would in turn cause chaos within the village is council members from there it could even spread trough the whole fire country, this would weaken there village is power, not a good thing.

"You want to teach me? Not buying it lady no one wants me as there student"

She was taken back, he seem to study her with anger filled eyes, as if he already knew what this so call training lesson was about, but that couldn't be they had been sworn to secrecy. Then again maybe kakashi is dislike for the boy had showed trough and naruto had picked up on it, either way she needed to calm him down or she would get no were.

"Of course they don't want you as there student you're a loud mouth trouble maker"

The glare she received was welcomed with a superior smirk and she knew that her plan was working; she was going to assess this little punk no matter what.

"I mean come now naruto you are the worst of the genin, low grades and lets face it your not the smartest one in the bunch, I think Kiba is dog is smarter than you"

Naruto clenched his fist and gritted his teeth, he had been insulted sure, hell he had even made fun off but this was different, he had gotten a bell from kakashi stood up to him and had come up on top and here he was being insulted by a woman who barely knew him. Aside from that, he had heard kiba laugh and akamaru bark at the comment. Glancing towards him with his peripheral vision he could see the blush on hinata and the look on shino; they seem to be keeping there cool and for that, he was thankful.

Looking at kurenai, he could see the small smirk and knew that she had issued a challenge to him. He smiled when he remembered that, that was one of piccolo's way of getting a rise out of him, he would tease, offend him and even hit him as hard as he could muster all to make him lose his temper. This time however, it was not going to work; he had been made a fool far too many times by that deam namek. He looked up at her and smiled, standing up he turns around and begins to walk away from the field, when he is a few feet away he looks up at the sky and takes a deep breath.

"You better hope, that I never face kiba in battle"

With that warning said he vanished right before there eyes and kurenai is eyes widen in surprise, he had move fast he didn't rushed away from the field he had simply vanished from sight. Looking at her students, she saw hinata look away and shino is dark glasses staring at her, some how she knew that she had messed up with her students.

"Hinata, shino, I didn't mean too"

Both did not speak, as for naruto he appeared beside his friends on the hokage is main office, the old man glanced at him and raised an eyebrow. He was supposed to be with kurenai, glancing at kakashi sarutobi could feel the surprise on his face as well.

"Naruto what are you doing here?"

"I finished my studies with kurenai, sorry about missing the mission guys"

Sasuke just smirked and turned towards him.

"As long as you don't mess up on more missions I'm ok with you brushing up your skills, you need it"

"Yeah"

He glanced at kakashi and then at the hokage, both were surprised to see him at the meeting, which meant that they had not planed on him being here, tough luck for them he was not going to play there game not any more.

"So what was the mission guys?"

"Capturing a stupid cat"

Sasuke pointed at the fat lady strangling a cat and frowned, the cat seem to be doing every thing in his power to break free from the woman, sasuke and sakura is eyes indicated that the stupid cat deserve what he got. Sarutobi turned there attention back to him and began to offered them missions, or more precisely chores, baby sitting some brats, picking up potatoes, naruto couldn't handle any more of those missions. Not that he had been to there first one but to hell with those lame missions he wanted a real one.

"Nooo, I want to go on a real mission, not this kid's stuff"

Sasuke couldn't agree more, but then iruka stood up and began to rant.

"How dare you, you're just a brand new genin with no experience. Like every one else you start with simple missions"

"Are you kidding me!?"

"Be quiet!"

Kakashi is fist was about to hit his head, thankfully his reflexes weren't rusty at all, kakashi is fist only hit air and made the jounin stumble a bit forwards, if naruto had been hit it would have hurt. The hokage how ever saw the quick response on the gening and smirked, it seem that naruto was indeed a surprising genin. Perhaps it was time to show him what a true mission was like.

"You want a true mission eh naruto?"

"Yeah, I do"

The hokage is laughter surprised them but then again the old man had always been kind to the boy, perhaps saw him as a second grand son. Kakashi turned towards the man and saw his smile, he frowned, the hokage shouldn't be doing this his team was far too young and had no field experience. The old man how ever understood were naruto was coming from, he wanted to get out there and show that he was not the loser every one thought him to be, he wanted to prove his worth as both a ninja and a human being.

"So be it, since you're so determined I'm giving you a C ran mission. You'll be a body guards in a mission"

Naruto smiled, the old man understood him perhaps he was the only one that did. That how ever did not excuse what he had done in setting him up for a trial test with kurenai, if all went well he would have a nice long chat with the old geezer, after all he couldn't very well be mistrusting of every one, besides the old man had never done any thing to warrant mistrust. Yeah it was best to tell him what he thought, after the mission of course.

"So who are we guarding?"

"I'll bring him in right now"

With his command, a door to the side opened and naruto frowned, he was beginning to think that the hokage was seeing him as more than a stupid kid, but that drunken man proved that he still had a long ways to go to show off his skills. It seem that every one saw him as just another big mouthed fool, that was his fault of course but after passing kakashi is test he had believed that they would at least given him the benefit of the doubt, but it seem that even the old man was still seeing him as a kid who needed easy missions. So he would take this mission and show them all what he could do nothing but serious naruto, that right he would take this mission with all seriousness.

"What the? A bunch of kids? Don't tell me your all ninjas, you the little one with the idiotic look on his face are you really a ninja?"

"No idiot I'm the kid who is going to let you go to hell"

"Naruto"

"Come on this is crap, what kind of a mission is this? Guarding a drunken old man"

"Listen kid I'm Tazuna a master bridge builder, and I must return to my country I'm building a bridge there that will change my world so I expect you to get me there safely even at the cost of your life"

Naruto frowned, and looked at the hokage the old man just smiled. He had given them a mission all right, it might not be the best one but it sounded important, grunting naruto nodded in defeat, if this is, what it would take to advance in the ranks then so be it, besides he had gotten out of D level missions which was a good thing. Heading home, they decided to meet the next day bright and early, after all kakashi and his team had already been on a mission that day, and it was already late. Naruto nodded and parted ways, he was sure that neither sasuke nor sakura would want to meet with him any ways, besides the way that kakashi was staring at him made him want to punch the elite right in his good eye.

Walking out of the building he saw one of the guards signaling him to follow, it seem that the hokage wanted to talk to him, his conversation had come earlier than he had anticipated, but that was okay, he had a few things he wanted to get off his chest. Arriving at office he saw kurenai beside the man and frowned, despite his arrival she had not taken her eyes of the floor. Sarutobi however was staring at him with an intense look this was serious.

"You know why you're here"

"Cuz I disobeyed your order and wouldn't play your little game"

"It's no game naruto; kakashi has certain concerns regarding your skills"

Concerns, naruto smiled, the jounin was concern about his skills and it seem that he wasn't the only one, the old man was tense and worried that had taken him by surprised, if there was one man whom naruto knew he could trust with his life it would be sarutobi and yet here he was questioning him. He looked away and frowned, sarutobi saw the changed in naruto, he knew what had gone trough his mind and frowned at that but it couldn't be helped. If kakashi is, concerns were un founded then that would be the end of that but if they weren't, he didn't even want to think about that.

"Just because I wouldn't play her game doesn't mean I won't follow your orders"

"Naruto"

"If you want me to fight, if you want to know what I am capable off then just ask old man"

Sarutobi shock his head, he was disappointed not in naruto but in himself, the boy is words cut trough him, the disappointment in the kid is voice hurt. In all his life, the man had not heard the boy sound so defeated, as per naruto he just wanted this to end. It was one thing for others to question his abilities but for the old man to be concern that he might be dangerous, that hurt but what hurt the most was that the old man had doubted him.

"Naruto he is the hokage it's his job to be concern"

"The demon is locked away; I am still in control and just because I'm not the fool you all believe I was don't mean I want to destroy this village"

Naruto vanished, he was tired of being doubted, of the fear and hate in every one is eyes, but this time, he had seen for the first time that despite the old man is words, despite the kindness and the love the old man had showed him there was still doubt. The old man was afraid, not of what he held inside but of what might happened if it ever got out, he should of know that despite the caring nature of the man he still had his concerns, he was the hokage after all. He had a right to be concern and he knew that, but that how ever didn't mean that he wasn't hurt by what he had seen and heard tonight.

The smile that was on his face would have made every one wonder, would have made every one think that the boy was losing his mind. the truth was that he was any thing but; if any thing naruto uzumaki had become much more determined and inspired to prove them all wrong, no matter what he was going to prove that he was not what they believed him to be, or what they thought he would become. He was naruto uzumaki and soon he was going to show them all what he could do.

(THE NEXT DAY)

The team arrived in konoha gates right on schedule of course there instructor was no were in sight. The bridge building looked at the three kids and frowned; he would never understand ninja villages or there methods of training children to become weapons, it was one thing to be guarded by an adult but to be guarded by kids, they seem to be so inexperience in this. He knew that they had to be ninja in training or else they would be taking a low ranking mission, secretly he wondered if they were any good or if he should come forward with his secret.

"So old man how important is this bridge?"

The blond brat looked at him and tazuna smirked, the brat had come off as a cocky loud mouth kid who was nothing but talk, he knew the kind and he didn't mind, but that is when his life didn't depend on them guarding him. If this kid was nothing but talk then his hopes and dreams, no, the hopes and dreams of his town were crushed, looking at the other two he noticed that they were a bit far off and wouldn't hear his words, it was nothing personal they just didn't seem the kind to give a deam. The black haired kid was always scowling and the pink haired girl was always fawning over him, they were in there own little world so why bother them with his story.

Naruto raised an eye brow when the old man gave him a serious expression, it seem that after there little encounter yesterday the old man was beginning to calm down, that or the alcohol had ran its course out of his system, what ever the reason it seem the old man was ready to take him seriously.

"It's the life line of my town"

"Life line?"

"Yeah"

The old man was serious, his eyes became hard and his fist had clenched when he had said those words, which mean that what ever was going on in that town of his was definitely grave, naruto smiled and nodded, it seem that this mission was not such lousy one after all.

"Don't worry old man, well get you there safe"

"Yeah? Why are you so sure? You seem like a joke to me"

"Think what you want old man, but I am naruto uzumaki and will some day become hokage"

The old man smirked and laughed, the kid was too much, he had spoken with such determination that he wondered if there was more to him, shaking his head he got up when the jounin arrived. it seem the elite had crossed paths with a black cat or something, the five of them walked out of the village, but just after a couple of minutes after there outing naruto froze, there was something, no some one following then, kakashi saw the way the blond froze and stopped. The kid seem to be spooked by something' was looking around the whole area as if trying to find something, sakura was about to say something when he signaled her to stop.

"Naruto?"

"There is some one, no there are two people trailing us"

"How can you tell?"

Kakashi opened his senses and felt nothing, it seems that either naruto was mistaken or the kid knew something he didn't, which was unlikely. Naruto on his part just frowned when he felt the two chakra signatures fade away, two charkas, strong ones at that.

"I just do ok"

"Stop scaring us brat!"

Tazuna didn't appreciate the kid is joke, then again the kid seem to be worried, taking a drag of his bottle he laughed and pointed at the blond.

"You're scared at shadows and I'm supposed to believe you will become hokage some day?"

"I don't care what you believe old man"

"Well I do know that hokages are powerful and wise, you are puny and brainless, the day you become hokage ill sprout wings and fly"

"Think what you will I'm going on ahead"

Tazuna looked at the three members of the team and raised an eyebrow, the jounin seem to be annoyed while the two others were just looking at the blond brat who had walked ahead of them. Tazuna smirked and grunted then continue to walk while the rest followed him, what they didn't see was the smile on the old man is face. His little tactic had worked, he had gotten there attention off the possible treats, that would buy him some time, at least until who ever was hunting him realized that he had a jounin as a body guard.

Kakashi on the other hand was trying to figure out what had happened, tazuna is outburst had stopped him from asking naruto any more about what he had felt, truth was he was unsure of he should trust the blond but when on a mission you had to rely on your team mates, even if they were only genin. Shaking his head he knew that this mission had just gotten complicated' that he would need to be on his guard from here on out.

Then the meaningless conversations began and naruto frowned, this was like being in school all over again, sure, he was not the smartest one but sakura was one of the top in his class she should have known all of what kakashi had explained, but that was not what was annoying him. Kakashi seem to be too relaxed, his guard should be up but so far, naruto didn't detect any thing from the jounin, he cursed and opened his senses. There were two chakra signatures but he could focus them, he couldn't tell were they were coming from.

"Naruto"

Kakashi looked at the genin with surprised, he had just stopped and tensed, his hand was reaching for his weapons pouch, something was definitely wrong with the genin. The thing was that he could now feel something in the wind, something that didn't seem to add up, glancing at his surroundings, he saw no sing of trouble or chakra signatures, but then again naruto seem to have been on guard since they had left the village.

"There are two chakra signatures in front of us, I can't see any one"

Kakashi frowned and then remembered this was naruto; the boy wouldn't be able to see a genjutsu even if it popped out and hit him in the face. Telling them to keep there guards up they walked forwards, just as expected two figures jumped from the puddle and kakashi smiled. It was time he saw how well his rookies did in an actual combat situation, using a substitution jutsu he managed to dodge the attack of the two attacking ninjas, in the battlefield he saw that naruto was the first one to be attacked.

The two shinobies rushed towards the blond and naruto frowned, kakashi had vanished right after the attack and despite knowing that he was some were around the area he knew that he was not going to lend a hand in this fight. However, that was beside the point he needed to focus on the battle at hand, the two ninjas in front of him pulled a spike chained, one was on the left and the other on the right the chain connecting them. He how ever was not ready when they vanished and reappeared behind him.

"Got you"

The two wiped there chain to try and circle him, but the blond was to fast, he did a round back kick and send the first ninja crashing against the other, sasuke whom had been ready to enter the fight froze, the dub was actually fighting. Naruto turned towards them and frowned when he saw the way the instantly came back up, the two exchange a glance and nodded. It was clear that they had made a plan, they unleashed there chain once more but this time it broke free from there hands and they went there separate ways, one towards naruto the other towards sasuke and the old man.

"SHADOW CLONES"

Sasuke froze, there was just no way that this was naruto, the clone rushed towards tazuna and sakura pulling them away from the battle field, naruto cursed when he dodge a right claw from the one ninja that had rushed towards him, grabbing the hand that had swatted at him he held him and looked at sasuke.

"Heads up!"

Sasuke snapped out of his shock and jumped out of the attack is way, the two demon brothers cursed, the blond had gotten the target out of the way, that meant that there opportunity had been lost. The second demon brother jumped towards his brother and double-teamed the blond, much to sasuke and naruto is annoyance.

"Get him first then we deal with the other one"

The blond had created the clones, had countered attacked and had even snapped his teammate out of his daze which allowed him to dodge the incoming attack, it was clear that the blond kid had to be eliminated he was the one who reacted the fastest and knew how to handle himself in battle.

"No dice"

Kakashi came out no were and in a second held the two brothers in his arms, naruto smiled and shock his head, it was about time he came out of hiding, sasuke looked at kakashi and then at the blond. Naruto seem to just be annoyed that teacher had arrived when he had, kakashi on the other hand seem to smile behind that mask of his. Walking next to them, he pointed at the two and frowned.

"So who are those guys?"

"I think they were after our client"

Remembering what he had done naruto send the other to his clones and they returned in an instant, a grumbling sakura and a worried looking tazuna, kakashi walked to a near by three and tied the two brothers; finishing it he walked towards tazuna and glared at the old man. But before he said any thing he walked passed sasuke and naruto, he smiled nodded at sasuke and naruto smirked, he didn't need that display to know whom kakashi favored in his team.

"N-naruto are you ok?"

He turned towards sakura and saw her gaze fixed on his arm, it seem he had been cut by the discarded chain, frowning he looked at it and pulled out a bandage. It seem that while he was good at tracking the attacking ninjas he still needed to work on how to track discarded objects, that might be problematic if one doesn't keep a close watch on them. Kakashi looked at the wound and frowned when he saw that it had began to heal, it seem that the fox would take care of any injuries to naruto, so with that solve he turned towards the man before him, tazuna the bridge builder.

"So care to explain?"

"What are you talking about?"

"There chunin from the village hidden in the mist, there specialty is relentless attack, they keep fighting no matter what the sacrifice"

The two ninja tied to the three glared at the jounin, he seem to know more than he was letting on, one of them spoke up.

"How did you know about our ambush?"

Kakashi smiled, he could tell them about the heads up naruto had given them, but then it would mean that if they were to escape then they could warn the others to watch out for the blond kid and next time they couldn't be as ready.

"A puddle in a clear day when it hasn't rained in weeks"

The two didn't seem convince but for now kakashi knew that they had bought his story, that was all that mattered, with it they could do no harm just in case they were to escape. Tazuna looked towards kakashi and glared at the man.

"If you knew all that why leave the work to the genin"

"I had to know who there target was"

Tazuna looked at him and frowned, the man had figured him out there was no point in him putting up a front, even though the attack could have been ninja attacking ninja kakashi had seen the two mist nin rushing towards tazuna, it was clear who they were after. Turning to face the old man kakashi wondered if he was going to make up an excuse or just come out and say what was going on.

"When you made your request you stated that you wanted protection from robbers and highway men, you didn't say there were ninjas hunting you down, if we knew this it would be a B rank mission or higher, our task was simply to take you to your destination and protection while you finished protecting your bridge. If we knew we were going to be fending off attacks from enemy ninjas we would have staffed differently and charged for a B rank missions, that means we are far beyond out scope of our original missions"

Tazuna frowned, he knew that the mission was over as soon as the long speech ended, but if that were the case then it would mean that his whole town would be ruined, he couldn't let that happened but then again it was no longer up to him. The jounin was going to decide what to do and if he were to simply end it right here then that would be the end of that.

"Were genin this is to advance for our level of training, we should get back and I think we should treat naruto is wound, back in the village we can take him to a doctor"

Naruto looked at sakura and frowned, since when was she concern about his well being, stupid girl was using him as an excuse to end there mission. He glared at her and looked at his arm; sure, it felt numb but despite that it was still functional, it would not be a problem.

"Naruto is arm could become a problem, I guess we should go back to the village"

"Bridge builder we will complete this mission and I will protect you no matter what"

"Guess were taking the mission"

Sakura cursed and looked at naruto claiming he was a masochist, kakashi deciding to be on the side of caution took a closer look at naruto is wound and frowned, there was no wound, what ever happened it had left no trace behind. Sakura looked at kakashi and at the arm; she frowned when she saw that naruto is arm was un harmed.

"W-what?"

"A Jutsu I picked up"

Sakura nodded and walked towards sasuke, kakashi looked at naruto who was looking ahead as if annoyed by the man is presence, it seem that the blond had not even noticed what had happened to his arm. almost as if he was un aware of what was happening inside of him or more precisely of what the fox was doing to his body' now he wondered more about the blond is abilities, could they be because of the meddling of the demon?

Wave Country

The news had spread quickly, it seem that kakashi is assumption was right, they had been spied upon and now that spy was reporting on what she had seen, the man gato frowned, it seem that the chunin he had sent out failed. But it what was more interesting was that they had been out bested by a couple of chunin, which shouldn't be surprising seeing as how there instructor was a jounin.

"You failed, and here I thought you were top notch assassins, I paid good money zabusa"

"Stop whining"

The man pulls out a ratter large sword and gato frowns when it stops just a few inches away from his throat, he glared at the man but knew that he had to keep up his act just a little longer, if all worked out fine soon it would all end.

"This time I will go personally and this sword will be the last thing he sees"

"You sure about that? Your fist attempt failed and this time they will be expecting another attack, they will be waiting for you"

"Who do you think you're dealing with? I am the demon of the hidden mist"

LAND OF FIRE COAST

Naruto looked at the man beside them and wondered what he was so deep in thought about, it seem that after the attack tazuna is demeanor had changed somewhat. The drunken man was replaced by a worried old man that was filled with sadness, the campfire that was illuminating there site only seem to make the figure seem even more depressed, walking over to the old man he handed him some of his food and tazuna smiled.

"What's this?"

"You seem kind of down, want to talk about it?"

"You're just a kid, you wouldn't understand"

"Try me"

Naruto smiled and sat down beside the man, he wanted to know what exactly the man was worried about, he had spoken about the bridge before and had mentioned something about a lifeline but there was more to it. The way his eyes turned downwards and his voice filled with emotion told another story, this bridge meant more to the man; it was as if it was a personal matter.

"I was not lying when I said that the bridge was my town is life line"

"Oh?"

"There is a man, he is called gato a criminal who controls the export and import industries he controls our village is economy and our lives"

"That's why the bridge is so important?"

Having a criminal in control was something that even naruto knew was wrong, they had no moral code or ethics all they cared about was there business, he had deal with that kind of scum before. Now he was beginning to know why the man was invested on building his bridge, he wanted his town to be free from the control of that gato character.

"Yes, with it his shipping business would crumble to the ground"

"I think I get were your coming from old man"

"Oh really?"

Naruto is gaze was fixed on the sky' tazuna could see the sadness behind his eyes, something told him that the kid had dealt with bad people before, it was clear that this kid was more than meet the eye, he just keep himself hidden from the rest of the world.

"Yeah really, I get why you want gato out, you did say he was a criminal right?"

"Yeah, he makes out lives miserable"

"Well don't worry about it, soon as the boat gets here well be your town in no time"

"You aren't afraid of what might happened kid?"

Naruto smiled, the man still seem to be having trouble accepting the fact that they were going to continue on with the mission, while it was true that the danger factor had gone up a notch and the mission had changed the main of objective was the same. They needed to help tazuna not because of what they would get in return but because it was the right thing to do, that is why kakashi had agreed to go along with it.

"What will happened will happen old man no sense in worrying about it"

"Hey you two, the boat is here"

Kakashi called them to the port and they noticed that there ride had arrived, they were going to travel by night that way they would get to the old man is town when it was still day light.

"You ready to go old man?"

"Yeah I am brat"

They got into the small boat and headed off towards wave, naruto smiled this mission had been exactly what he wanted it to be, they were going to face more attacks and that little D mission had turned into an A rank one. things were turning out for the better, sakura looked at the smiling blond and frowned, naruto seem to be far to exited about what was to come next.

"Naruto?"

"What is it sakura?"

"H-how is your arm?"

"All better"

He smiled and unwrapped his bandages, she smiled when she saw that not even a scar remained, touching his arm she blushed when she felt the muscle underneath the skin, taking a closer look she saw that it was not a skinny arm, it was filled with muscle.

"It's so hard"

Naruto smiled when her eyes connected with his and she pulled her hand back and blushed, he was never going to understand girls, sakura on her part just smiled and shock her head, what was she thinking.

"I work out a lot"

"I noticed, I was …I wanted to thank you"

"For what?"

"When the attack happened you pulled me and tazuna away"

He frowned at that, he remembered the attack, he had acted on instinct that's why he had pulled sakura and the old man out, reflecting back on it he knew that he had done wrong by sakura, if any thing he should be apologizing to her. He had pulled her out of the battle with out her even having a chance to show what she got.

"I think I owe you an apology, I shouldn't have pulled you out of the battle"

"Huh?"

"You know showing off your moves and all"

Sakura frowned, what moves? She had none. Looking down at her hands she clenched them a bit tighter, she had froze, she didn't even fight for the clone to leave her behind, truth was she didn't now what she could bring to the team.

"Y-yeah m-my m-moves"

Kakashi looked at his student and saw the crest fallen look on sakura, naruto had mean to upset her but it seem that he had made her wonder what her skills were, now that he thought about it he had seen sakura and naruto work together before but had not seen the girl do any thing other than stand around. sasuke had given him a fight and impressed him when the had given the final test but those two, he wondered about naruto because he still felt him to be a wild card. Sakura on the other hand, he wondered about her.

The missing had escalated in ranking were his student ready? If the time came, would they be up for the challenge? Closing his eye he wished that he had not gone along with this, he just hoped that when the time came nothing would go wrong.

Continued….


	4. Chapter 4

TEACHER IV

There was something wrong with the area, he could feel it in every fiber of his being the time room as it was called was designed to test your body is limits. For some one like naruto uzumaki it was unlike any training he had received and according to goku this room was special; a year is training could be done on a day. Which mean that he could only remain in the room for an hour each day it was a bit rushed but when that hour equaled a day in the real world it was not so bad. Then again, that hour was unlike any other in his life, the room is air was thin which made it harder to breathe, his body weights twice as much and the whole placed was designed to test your abilities and make you stronger.

"Are you ready to start?"

Naruto could only nod at his sensei and goku smiled, the kid could barely stand, he smiled and took into the air, it was time to teach the kid the basic on how to fight when your body was dead tired and you could barely stand. Those were the time when you had to fight the hardest and stand strong, too not give up.

"H-how am I supposed to fight when I can barely stand?"

"You can't, all you can do is last"

"Last?"

"A battle is not simply won by power it is also won by skill"

Naruto couldn't understand what that meant, he was tired and his body just wanted to give up, he felt as if he had fought a grand battle with piccolo.

"I can barely move, how is skill supposed to help me when I can't even move"

"That is why were training, your will learn how to fight when you have nothing left"

"What about skill?"

"You will learn that when you can catch me"

Naruto frowned and took a step forward his body shivered with the effort when the second step was taken he nearly collapsed, there was no way he was going to be able to catch his sensei, this was too hard and just as he was about to give in he remembered, he couldn't give up. He wanted to be respected, how was he going to accomplished that if he couldn't even do this? He wouldn't, that is why he had to continue, taking a deep breath he stood on shaking legs and took two more steps forward, he wouldn't give up, not that easy.

"H-how long will it take me to catch you?"

"I don't know if you will ever catch me"

Naruto glared at him, goku just smiled and then rushed towards him stopping right in front of his face and smiled. Naruto saw his chance and took it, he threw a punch at him and frowned when his arm didn't respond like it should, this place made every thing different and his punch was slow, too slow not only that it felt as heavy as a log, he could barely lift it and goku smirked.

"T-then what is the point?"

"For you to get stronger and faster"

Goku jumped away and naruto cursed, five feet he had only jumped five foot but in this room, five feet seem an eternity away. Slowly his feet moved and his body screamed in agony, this was as going to be hard but taking one look at his sensei he could see what the results could be, goku was jumping around throwing punches and kicks with such ease that it made naruto wonder if he could ever achieve such a level of speed and agility. With the way he was going he didn't know if he was ever going to reach it but he was going to give it his best and maybe just maybe he would reach a level that was enough, looking at his shaking legs he smirked and took to more steps each one more agonizing than the other.

"How strong can I become?"

Goku is smile was enough and naruto uzumaki took two more steps, he was going to be strong he was going to become hokage some day, but before all of that, he was going to walk towards his sensei and show him that he was not going to give up. He was going to press on and was going to catch him no matter what.

Chapter IV

"THE WAVE"

Arriving on wave country naruto felt it. From the moment naruto had stepped out of the boat he had felt it, two massive charkas that combined the two dwarfed kakashi is own; whoever was waiting for them was going to crush them like bugs, there was no way that kakashi could take on the two, If he did then the outcome would most likely be jounins death. Of course he couldn't let that happened but he couldn't just let lose and show his true power, not when kakashi was so suspicious of him, he didn't need another inquiry regarding how he acquired his abilities.

The hokage was concern enough as it was, he didn't need the old man having a heart attack or something, or for that matter him breathing down his neck asking him for answers he couldn't give, that in turn would lead them all to assume that the demon had taken over and that was not an option. Naruto knew that he couldn't very well tell him the truth not when it meant revealing that there was a whole other world out there; one were the fighters were so strong they could destroy a planet if they wanted too. Besides, he did not want the hokage to think that he was going mad.

So he decided to remain quiet and see how things plaid out, if anything he knew that he could at least take on one of the two and win, but that however would be difficult seeing as how he knew nothing of the fighters that were waiting for them. Fact of the matter was that despite his powers and all the abilities he had acquired during his training with goku he wasn't sure he could measure up to the fighters on this realm. Oh he knew that he was strong enough and able enough but the fact of the matter was that goku had warned him that with out knowing his opponent he couldn't just rush into a battle he needed to think it trough.

This world, his world was unlike the other one, he needed to learn the basic of what this world had to offer hence why he had attended the academy and had learned that what his sensei had said was true. Ninjutsu, Taijutsu, Genjutsu were only the beginning and as he had learned them he discovered that his abilities would only count if he knew how to use them against shinobi who were experts on these techniques, who knew how to use weapons and so forth. So he had spent all of his days in the academy watching and learning and after every thing he had learned one thing, he was just a kid and he was not sure he could last against an opponent with experience.

Oh, he was powerful and he could last a round with the best fighter in the world but that didn't mean that he could be over confident in how he handle a situation, he could never be overconfident in a fight specially when his scores in the academy were the lowest, and most shinobi had twice the skills he had. To be truthful he always wanted to test how he would fair against fighters from this world, hell kakashi had been showed him that he could hold his own in a fight but that had only been a test, this, this would be a real and he couldn't wait.

He knew that he couldn't just inform kakashi and see what his answer would be, he needed to wait and see how things would play out and if need be help out. So he let his senses scan the area, if there was some one hiding then he was going to find them before they could strike, unfortunately, this mission had a lot of variables that he didn't like. The fact of the matter was that he didn't know who could be after tazuna, what the treat level was, this mission was getting out of hand.

"Is something wrong?"

Turning towards kakashi he nodded, there was some one in the forest, unfortunately he couldn't pin point the location seeing how who ever was following them had managed to hide his chakra not all of it but just enough for him not to know the exact location.

"I think there is some one following us"

After those words were spoken a rattle in one of the near by bushes was heard and naruto is hand reached for his weapon's pouch, the kunai flew from his hand and struck a near by three, his actions managed to startled the others but kakashi was more concern with the boy is words. Naruto had felt something or else he would not be as jumpy as he had been, walking towards the direction the kunai was thrown he frowned when he saw the white rabbit, the others following behind were a little less forgiven when they saw the scared beast.

"Naruto look what you did!"

Sakura screamed at him but the boy had no time for her reprimand, his senses went into over drive, the signatures were getting closer. Kakashi left the rest of the group behind and focused on his surroundings, he had seen the white fur on the animal, it was a snow rabbit and as far as he knew, they only had white fur on winter. The animal was clearly raised indoors away from the light, which only meant one thing; it was used as a replacement technique. Naruto was right some one was following them, glancing back at the blond, he saw him on alert and smile, the kid was good.

In the three lines a figure frowned at the blond, the kid is move has surprised him, he was sure that he was masking his presence and yet the blond had managed to locate him. Turning towards the jounin knew why the kid was so good and knew why the demon brothers had failed; it was the copy ninja, kakashi of the sharingan. Standing up from his crouching position, he swings his sword and throws it at the group.

"Look out!"

Naruto turns around and frowns when he sees the massive blade heading his way, the other four throw themselves to the ground but he stands. His years of training kick in and he moves by pure instincts his hands reaches out for the blade and just as kakashi is about to scream at him to move the blade connects with his hand and nothing happens.

"W-what the"

Kakashi cannot believe his eyes, naruto is holding on to the massive sword, he stopped it in mid air and is now holding it with one hand as if it had not weight at all.

"Who are you?"

A voice is heard from one of the near by threes following the voice kakashi is eyes land on a near by three and frowns when he sees the man standing on it. Naruto turns towards him and throws the swords to the ground, immediately realizing what he has done he grabs his hand looks at his teammates. Sasuke's eyes are wide in amazement and sakura looks like a fish out of water. He curses himself for letting his instincts get the better of him, sakura stand up and rushes to his side.

"Are you ok?"

"Yeah ill be ok"

He immediately grabs some bandages from his pack and wraps his hand with it, he cant let her see that his hand is completely un harm, sakura is about to ask him what had gotten into him when the voice that spoke a few minutes ago speaks again, asks the same question.

"Who are you brat?"

The rest of the team stands up and focus there attention on there attacker, he has the bottom part of his face covered with bandages and has no shirt on, his head band how ever gives away his identity right away.

"He is not important zabusa"

Kakashi recognizing the man steps right in front of his team, he cannot afford to let his guard down even for a moment, not if he is facing this man.

"You know this guy sensei?"

Sakura is question is answered by a simple nod.

"Yes I do, he is a renegade ninja from the village hidden in the mist, zabusa momochi"

"So let's just take him down"

Sasuke rushes towards zabusa but he is stopped by kakashi is hand; sasuke is about to protest but kakashi's words stop him dead.

"You're in the way, get back"

"But why?"

"He's not like those other ninja, he is in a whole other league if he is our opponent I will need this"

His hand reaches for his headband cover his left eye and all sasuke could do is stand next to him and wonder what kakashi is planning, and just how strong this ninja is.

"Kakashi of the sharingan eye, did I get it right? It's too bad you will have to hand over that old man"

"S-sharingan?!"

"Now quick manji formation, protect the bridge builder and stand out of this fight, I thought you team work now its time to use it"

He cant afford to answer any of sasuke is questions, he needs to focus all of his power on the ninja before him or he might very well die in this fight, slowly he raises his head band and uncovers his left eye, sasuke is body becomes cold and he stares at the now revealed eye with surprise and confusions.

"I am ready"

The uchiha is mind is reeling, how is it possible that some one possesses his clan is sharingan, he is about to ask more question but he is interrupted by the mist ninja. Sakura exchanges glances with naruto wondering just what the sharingan is, naruto turns to her with the same question. What ever it is both genin known that they are about to see it in action.

"Well, it looks like I get to see the sharingan in action this is an honor"

"What the hell is sharingan any way?"

Naruto is words is answered by a very disturbed sasuke, as his lips move his eyes are still fixed on his sensei is left eye, as if wondering how it got there how the man had acquired it and knew how to use his blood line ability.

"Sharingan a rare power that resides in the eyes, the user of this visual Jutsu or doujutsu can instantly see and comprehend any taijutsu, genjutsu or ninjutsu and reflect the attack back on the attacker"

Naruto frowns, if kakashi had that power and had not used it when he fought him then that fight meant nothing to him, he wanted to test his abilities, it seem that kakashi had played him all along. He cursed and glared at his teacher; if he was not going to take him seriously then he was going to have to make some changes as to how he dealt with situations from now on. He did not like to be played with.

"The sharingan is a special rare form of doujutsu, how ever there is more to the sharingan that that, a lot more"

"You got that right boy, but you barely scratched the surface the sharingan can analyze an opponent is techniques and copied to the smallest details"

Naruto smirked wondering if his teacher would be able to copy any of the abilities, he had gotten from training in that other world that how ever was a question for another time; he needed to focus on what was happening with his surroundings. While the conversation and explanation was all well and good, he still had a shin obi to find. This guy, zabusa had not come into this fight alone and who ever was accompanying him was a lot better than him at hiding, he had not been able to sense any thing or felt any thing in the surrounding area.

"N-naruto?"

Sakura was right next to him and he frowned when he saw the concern on her face, she seem to have picked up on his concern.

"Don't worry, what ever happens I will protect you"

Sakura froze at those words, when she had called his name she had not expected him to figure out that she was worried but some how he head and had managed to make her feel a lot better about it. She was about to reply when the clearing began to fill with mist, she jumped a little closer to tazuna and frowned when the visibility nearly dropped to zero, she could barely see her team mates, this was her first real fight and she was scared. The man standing on the three was clearly dangerous or kakashi would not have pulled out that sharingan of his, what was worse was the fact that the mist ninja seem to be happy he had done so.

Sakura knew that what ever was about to happen was going to be bad, she felt naruto move and in a second he was beside her, he turned towards her and smiled. For a moment she felt as if there was no battle around them, as if they were back in there village safe, that feeling how ever quickly ended when zabusa is voice echoed around them.

"As for you jounin, in the assassination unite of the hidden mist we had a standing order to destroy you on sight, your profile was on our bingo book. They called you the man who copied over a thousand jutsu, kakashi the copy ninja"

Sakura was surprised she couldn't believe that her teacher was some one so famous, naruto smirked he hated to admit it but he was impressed, it seem that his sensei wouldn't be such a drag after all. For sasuke however it was a completely different line of thought, he still couldn't believe that this man had his clan is abilities, how could kakashi have it when only a few members of the uchiha clan ever managed to possess it.

"Enough talking, I need to exterminate the old man"

Sasuke hearing those words snapped into action and rushed to join his team near tazuna, kakashi had order them to protect him and that is what he was going to do, question could be asked latter, questions not only to his teacher but to the blond stands to the left of his.

"So I'll have to eliminate you first, eh kakashi so be it"

The man vanished from the three and reappeared on the water, naruto smirked zabusa was fast.

"He vanished and reappeared by the water"

Sakura was scared, she didn't even see the man move, she hadn't even seen him make a hand sing or for that matter do any thing but crouch down and then nothing. As for zabusa the man stood over the water and closed his eyes he needed to finish this fast, he knew that a fight with kakashi would cost him more the longer it lasted. Focusing his chakra water began to surrounding him and more mist began to appear, kakashi frowned the man was building a massive amount of chakra.

"Ninja art, hidden mist jutsu"

"He vanished"

Sasuke looked around and saw nothing but mist every were, his senses were no good here, not only that something had changed, the air got heavy and it was harder to breathe and focus.

"Sensei?

"Don't worry sakura hell come after me first"

"But who is he?"

"Zabusa momochi, the ex leader of the hidden mist assassination unit he is a master of the silent killing technique"

"Silent?"

Naruto was intrigued now a man who could kill with out being detected, that sounded to good to be true, he shock those thoughts away and tried to focus on his teacher is lecture. He couldn't be distracted with the desire to fight, he needed to keep up appearances, but still that meant he wouldn't get a few couple of round with the guy.

"As the name suggest it happens on a instant with out a sound or warning of any kind, it so fast you pass from this life with out realizing what had happened, my sharingan can't fully neutralize it so be on your guard"

That froze every one is nerves, they all gasped in fear but naruto chuckled, kakashi turned towards him and frowned. Had naruto lost his mind?

"This will be fun"

"HOW CAN YOU SAY THAT?"

Sakura couldn't believe what the blond had just said, he couldn't possibly think that this was fun, they were facing a ninja that could kill with out being noticed and yet here was naruto almost laughing his head off. Kakashi glared at the blond and shock his head.

"Well if we fail we only lose our lives"

"Sorry kakashi but I'm not planning on being killed this day"

"You sound over confident"

"I don't need to see my opponent to fight him"

Kakashi narrowed his eyes, what was the blond getting at, were his senses that good? Had the fox increased them to such a degree?

"With the mist getting thicker and thicker I hope your not lying naruto"

"That's because the land of waves is surrounded by ocean, the swirling mist is always present"

Tazuna cut in and kakashi nodded, great that was useful, or would have been useful before the fight began.

"That's good to know"

Zabusa had the advantage on this battle ground but if naruto is words were right then perhaps, no he couldn't think like that he needed to focus on his own senses and on what he had to work with.

"Eight points"

"What was that?"

Sakura is panic voice made naruto frown, the voice was coming from everywhere and as it began to explain what the eight points were, he had had enough.

"Shut your deam mouth and come out all ready, stop hiding"

Kakashi also had enough summoning his chakra he unleashed a small amount of it and pushed the mist away, that how ever had some serious consequences his chakra was lased with killer intent and was driving sasuke crazy, he felt like he was suffocating like he was going insane he didn't know if he could last. He was afraid he felt as if his life was being chocked out of his body and with out a second thought he reached for his kunai.

"Sasuke calm down, I will protect you with my life all of you, I will not allow you to die, trust me"

"I wouldn't be so sure"

Above him, naruto reacted and unleashed an uppercut, sasuke and sakura looked upwards and saw naruto is punch imbedded in zabusa is stomach right before he exploded into nothing but water, naruto turned towards kakashi.

"SENSEI BEHIND YOU!"

Kakashi turned around and saw zabusa slash at him with his sword, it connected and the man was sliced in half. Sakura was about to scream but then her teacher its body turned into water.

"(The water clone jutsu, it can't be, even in the mist he saw trough my illusion and copied it in an instant)"

Kakashi reappeared behind him with a kunai to his neck.

"Don't move it's over, you're finished"

Zabusa chuckled and kakashi frowned.

"Finished? You really don't get it do you? Your technique is nothing but a crappy imitation I will never be defeated by a mere copycat like you, your are full of surprises though, you had already copied my water jutsu when you made your little speech. Very well done you made your clone say those words to draw my attention while you hid in the mist waiting for me to make my move nice try, but I am not that easy to fool"

Kakashi cursed when he felt something moving behind him, he had been duped the zabusa in front of him was nothing but a water clone.

"Look out!"

Naruto moved and was behind kakashi before the man could turn around, zabusa appeared and saw the blond boy now standing back to back with kakashi, he had not seen him move, how did he move so fast?. He swung his sword and the kid pulled out a kunai, the two weapons collided and zabusa stared at the blond with surprised, he had blocked his sword with a mere kunai but that was impossible.

"Naruto?!"

Kakashi could believe what he was seeing; both naruto and zabusa were struggling, while zabusa was struggling to continue his upper slash naruto was struggling to keep the weapon at bay with his kunai.

"MOVE!"

Kakashi was not fool and immediately took the opportunity handed to him, he jumped behind zabusa and was about to strike when the demon of the mist vanished and appeared behind him, the mist ninja kicked kakashi with an upper kick that sending him flying trough the air and right towards the pond of water. Naruto moved and cursed when he felt something spike his feet, looking downwards he saw some kind of spikes in the ground. Zabusa smirked and swung his sword.

"Not that smart brat!"

The sword swung, naruto dodged it and turned to punch the man in front of him but just like before his fist connected with a water clone, the man had made a substitution, zabusa was no longer in front of him but behind him in the lake were kakashi was. Cursing naruto turned towards the lake and frowned when he saw zabusa jump on to the water and kakashi come out of it. Soon as that happened zabusa was behind him making hands sings and kakashi was being placed in a water bubble.

"Water prison jutsu"

Kakashi cursed he was trapped.

"This prison might be made out of water but its stronger than steel"

Sakura and sasuke both looked at each other and the same thing passed trough there heads, with out kakashi here they were as good as dead, tazuna just looked at the kids in front of him and cursed, this shouldn't have happened, these kids were going to lose there lives because of him. Naruto looked at the two men in the river and smirked, kakashi was trapped zabusa was free which meant that he could test his medal, consequences be deamed he was not going to keep playing the fool, not any more.

"I will finish you later, but first your little friends will have to be eliminated, water clone jutsu"

Another clone, to be honest he had not time to deal with clones, naruto moved and in a blink of a eye the clone that had just emerged was smashed into nothing more than a puddle. Zabusa clenched his teeth and looked at the brat in front of him; his eyes were staring right at him as if daring him to come after him.

"Who is this brat?"

"Naruto no! Run get away"

"Sorry but I want to fight him, besides you said that those who abandoned there comrades in battle are worse than trash so I'm taking him down"

Zabusa laughed, this kid either was an idiot or had gone insane.

"You're more foolish than I thought"

Sakura couldn't believe what she was hearing, naruto wanted to fight the guy, that was insane the guy had just trapped there sensei, he was insane if kakashi wasn't able to bring down zabusa how the hell was naruto going to stop the demon? There was no way he was serious he had to have some kind of plan or something up his sleeve.

"Naruto what are you thinking?! You can't rush in there by yourself even kakashi sensei couldn't get to him, were only genin we can't defeat a jounin what are you thinking?!"

"I said I was going to protect you and that is what I'm going to do"

"Are you crazy we need to do what he said and get out of here!"

"If we run then he will no doubt catch up to us"

Sasuke is statement went unanswered but he knew that he had made it clear, they could not run naruto nodded and made a quick hand sing, in an instant the field was filled with shadow clones, one of them approached sakura and smiled.

"Let me deal with zabusa, you guys take the old guy out of here"

"What about you? Or him or you know"

"He, me what ever will be fine don't worry"

Zabusa saw the army of clones and frowned if he attacked each one it would take time to catch the real ones, he could do clones of his own but that would take to much chakra, as much as he hated to admit it, he could not summon as many clones as the blond had. When he had seen the hand sings, he had smirked but when the field had filled with blond brats, the smirk had faded and he knew that this little genin was no ordinary genin. No not after every thing the kid had done, he had seen trough his mist he had punched out two of his water clones and moved faster than any shin obi he had even encountered, he was no ordinary genin.

Zabusa hated to admit it but the kid had reacted fast and had used a technique that as far as he knew was forbidden. Looking trough the crowd of clones was impossible, they were far to many and they were providing cover for the others to escape, he needed to finish the clones soon or his prey was going to elude him.

"This is the best you got?!"

Naruto smirked he knew that the clones were bound to get to zabusa, now all he needed was a brief moment of distraction that would allow him the time he needed to get close to him and attack. Zabusa looked at the clones and realized what the blond kid had done he had made an almost perfect escape plan, the clones were not only persistent they were well built; they would not puff out with one punch that was for sure.

Naruto smirked he had put a little bit more effort on the creation of his clones; he knew what level zabusa was and knew that ordinary clones were not going to cut it; so he had put just a bit more chakra on his clones. That not only made them more solid but also made them a hell of a lot stronger and smarter than regular shadow clones, still the demon of the mist would not be fool by the clones, he needed to act now because zabusa would surely have come up with a plan to get rid of them.

Kakashi could only stare in awe at the sight before him, the field was surrounded by narutos, each one of them heading into different directions each one shielding something or some one, if he was having trouble-seeing trough the clone's zabusa was in hell. A small smirk appeared on the jounin is face; this might just buy enough time for them to escape.

Cursing zabusa used his other hand to make a hand sing and smirked, this would end the little clone problem once and for all. Naruto knew that he had to stop him before he finished the hand sing or something bad was going too happened. He didn't know what the hand sing meant and he didn't want to find out not when his team could be in danger.

Rushing towards zabusa naruto frowned when he saw the demon finish his hand sing, zabusa focused all of his chakra and summoned it towards him, Naruto saw the chakra engulfing the man is body, a second latter a massive wave was forming behind him; zabusa smiled the little genin was way over his head on this fight.

"Fool"

Naruto froze, zabusa is eyes seem to glow and the water wave had double in size. The hand sing he had used had created a huge wave and was now heading towards land, towards him and his clones, cursing naruto realized what he was doing. The shadow clones would be wiped out if that wave struck, he needed to act fast, stopping in mid charge, he focused his chakra and placed his hands in front of him, zabusa frowned when he saw what the kid was doing. Whatever hand sing the kid would use would be useless the jutsu he had summoned was in a whole other level.

Naruto focused and placed his hand in front of him making a triangle in front of him. The attack was going to use a chunk of his chakra but it would be worth it, he just hoped thought of something and fast because after the stunt he was about to pull he would be at half strength.

Kakashi saw the massive wave pass trough them and head towards land, towards naruto, the genin was just standing there with his hands in front of him as if reading an attack but there was no way that naruto could stop zabusa is attack, zabusa laughed and at the boy and called out his attack.

"TSUNAMI STRIKE JUTSU"

Zabusa is voice rang out and the wave increased in both size and mass, naruto shock his head no time to gather the chakra, his attack was going to be at half strength; if he waited any longer than the more likely it was for his friend to be caught up in the massive water attack. Placing his hands in the right position, he focused on the middle of the triangle they made and chose the target. He had to remember his training, needed to focus as much power as he could on his hands and then unleash it, putting as much power as he could into it.

"KY-KOHU!"

His palms felt like they were on fire but the blast that came out of them made him smile, he just hoped that it would be enough; zabusa looked at the massive glow coming from the kid and shivered, he knew in that moment that this was no boy. Naruto is chakra had spiked at the last moment and from it came a huge chakra blast, one unlike any thing he had seen before, one that was heading right for him. Moving out of the way he jumped to the near by trees and cursed when he saw his attack being repelled back by the boys is own chakra. The two powers connected the water wave clashed with the chakra blast and canceled each other out.

The kid was powerful, he had repelled his tsunami with just his chakra and now kakashi had been freed, which meant that he had to worry about the brat and the copycat, the odds were beginning to turn against him.

"Time to end this!"

The voice came from his right and he knew whom it belong too, but that was impossible no one moved that fast, the boy had been in the clearing a moment ago and now he was here right next to him. Turning his face around he saw the brat is smiling face right next to his own. In a blink of an eye, the boy had vanished and reappeared beside zabusa, turning towards his left he raised his sword and blocked the kid is punch, the blow connected and he was sent crashing downwards towards the ground. The experience shin obi managed to land on his feet and look upwards but unfortunately for him the boy was no longer on top on the three branches. Naruto was right in front of the demon is face and was preparing another punch, zabusa jumped away from him and swung his swords towards the blond only to have naruto jump out of the way and reappear to the man is right side.

Zabusa threw a high kick to the right and was surprised when the kid caught it in mid air, whatever training the kid had done was impressive he was fast and strong. He had managed to land a direct hit to his sword and not break his hand; the more surprising thing was that he was sure his sword had cracked. He had to take the kid seriously and with that in mind he made a quick hand sing and naruto cursed, he knew that close range attacks left you vulnerable to close range Justus but in the mist of the battle he had forgotten and now it was going to cost him. Kakashi saw the battle and stood up, he needed to help naruto but just as he was about to rush towards his aid he felt something prick the back of his neck and his body stopped moving.

"You will not interfere"

An eerie voice spoke from behind him before he lost consciousness, a masked boy looked at the battle before him with a high level of concern, his master was facing against a child, one whom seem to be his equal.

"Hidden style water spike jutsu"

Naruto looked around him and frowned, when he had stopped the water attack he had neglected to see that it had splattered all around the area, now zabusa had an unlimited supply of water that he could use to his advantage. Being a mist ninja the demon of the mist is attacks almost always relied on water by spreading the liquid naruto had turned the battle field to zabusa is advantage. The demon is jutsu began to form and the water on the ground began to shoot upwards in the form of steel hard spikes, jumping away from zabusa and the million of water spikes he cursed when he saw that they were following him.

"They have locked on to your chakra signature kid, no matter how far you run they will search you out and impale you"

"That's a good one"

Naruto frowned and once more jumped away from the spikes, they came one after another emerging from every single drop of water on the ground, one after another from all around him and as incredible as it was he was dodging every single one. Zabusa is eyes widen in surprised, the boy is speed had increased and was dodging every single water spike that came out of the moist ground. Putting more chakra behind his jutsu he double the number of spikes that would come out of the ground and cursed when he saw the blond brat continue to keep up with the speed of the spikes.

Naruto felt the change in the air currents around him he could feel every single change in his surroundings and he smiles. This is what goku had been telling him about sensing your surroundings to anticipate and attack before it was able to strike, combine that with your third sense and you could dodge and opponent is attacks no matter how fast they were. The water spikes also contain very low traces of chakra in them, which made it easier to sense, naruto smirked and moved trough the attacks.

"(Impossible, this brat is moving towards me, he is moving trough my attack and preparing to attack me, how is this possible!?)"

Zabusa couldn't believe his eyes, the genin was moving trough the attack, dodging and jumping out of the spikes at a speed that was inhuman, each spike each attack did nothing to slow the blond down, he needed to think of something fast or the kid was going to reach him.

"You seem worried zabusa"

"Surprised perhaps, for a genin to possess such speed"

"I am unique"

"(Just like haku) so I see, now I can take you seriously"

"What?!"

The man jumped towards naruto and the blond is eyes widen, he wanted to go into the offensive but he was once again in a defensive position, zabusa is sword move faster than before add that to the spikes that he was already dodging and naruto knew that he was in trouble. The ky-kohu had taken a massive chunk of his chakra, still he knew that he could last until kakashi got recuperated enough to help.

"This is were you die"

The voice behind him distracted him, turning around he saw a masked teen appeared out of no were with a zenbon needle in hand, he was the other one, the one that was accompanying zabusa, naruto turned towards zabusa and saw the sword was ready to come down on his, three attacks were coming all at the same time.

"You were good kid but were better"

Zabusa was in front of him and haku behind him, the water spikes were coming out of every were, looking at the two shin obi naruto knew that he was caught, there was no way that he was going to be able to dodge three attacks at once.

"NOW!"

The three attacks came all at once and naruto cursed, one more technique and he was going to lose another chunk of his chakra, but he had no choice placing two fingers to his forehead he concentrated and closed his eyes, all he needed was a second a second to be some place else, a second to teleport. Both attacks slid downwards both attacks connected with nothing; the blond had vanished.

"What the devil!?"

Zabusa couldn't believe what he had seem, the boy was right in front of him, he had not move he couldn't possible have moved, no one was that fast. Haku turning towards his master and despite having his mask on zabusa could tell what her question was going to be.

"No one is that fast, how could he?"

Zabusa had heard of a man, once long ago a man whom was as fast as lighting and had killed a demon.

"There was a man, one who's speed defied logic"

"Who was this man?"

"They called him the yellow flash, but not even he posses such speed"

No, the yellow flash was fast but even he left a trace when he moved, the kid the kid was something else. He had not seen any trace of movement had not seen any thing; it was as if he had vanished.

"Were is kakashi?"

"I knocked him out and came to aid you"

Naruto reappeared on the clearing and found kakashi is unconscious form on the ground, enough was enough, he had wasted a lot of chakra in both the teleportation technique and the ky-koho, he could not continue the battle. If he were just a year older he would have been able to take on both the man and the teenager but he was only 13, his chakra pathways were not as developed as an adult or as a 16 year old. Picking kakashi of the ground, he sees the two shin obi from the mist come out of the bushes and smirks.

"We will meet again, next time how ever I will be ready for you"

"You speak as if you can run from us brat"

"I can"

Zabusa cursed at him and rushed towards him, haku was surprised at the speed his master had used but was even more surprised when the blond smiles and vanished once more, zabusa is sword sliced at nothing but air and the demon of the mist cursed once again.

"Who was that boy?"

"I don't know but next time we fight I will have his head"

With those words zabusa collapsed on the ground and haku frowned. Chakra exhaustion, the jutsu zabusa had used were not ordinary ones and required both massive amounts of chakra and concentration to make them work, it would take a week before the man was on his feet, but that was okay as it would take kakashi the same amount of time to regain his strength. Until then he would find out more about this blond genin.

Naruto reappeared in front of his team and looked at them with a smile at there surprised faces, he knew that it was going to be hard for them to take in the sight of him carrying kakashi on his shoulder. Sakura looked at the blond and wanted to ask him what had happened but all she could see was kakashi slumped over naruto is shoulder, sasuke is teeth clenched, just what the hell had happened in that fight?

"We have to get out of here fast, every one grab a hold of my hand"

The three looked at him as if he were nuts but with kakashi slumped over his shoulder and the threat of an imminent attack over there heads they had no choice but to do as they were told.

"What are you going to do naruto?"

"I sense a village not far from here I think I can make it but after that I'm going to be spent"

"What?"

"Hold on I'm going to teleport"

With those words, the group vanished from the clearing. As they vanished one thing remained on naruto is head, all the chakra he had used was going to come back and bite him in the ass, it always had. Arriving on the small town tazuna lead them to his house were kakashi tended to immediately and the rest were given food and water.

"You rest for a while ill inform my daughter of what has happened"

"You do that"

Tazuna left and both sakura and sasuke turned towards naruto, he had a lot of question to answer. How the hell had he pulled the moves he had done back there and how had kakashi ended up unconscious, naruto smirked and shock his head, he knew what they were going to ask and knew that he had to tell them something or next time zabusa and his friend came after them they would be in serious trouble.

"How were you able to move so fast?"

The first to ask the question was sasuke and naruto smiled of course sasuke would be interested in how he had acquired his speed, the guy was obsessed with power and unless he was honest with both sakura and sasuke, he would lose the team. Sasuke could become jealous of his abilities and sakura would feel afraid of him that was the last thing he wanted, looking at sasuke he decided to be as honest as he could.

"Weights, use them all the time you should too because I'm guessing that zabusa is not done with us yet"

Both of his teammates froze with fear, sasuke shock his head was that ninja that strong? If kakashi with the sharingan couldn't defeat him then how could they survive against another attack? Sakura was beginning to tremble and her voice cracked.

"What?!"

Naruto heard the fear behind her voice and frowned, he didn't know what to tell them to make them feel better, truth was he had been bested and kakashi had been knocked out. They were beaten and as much as it worried him, he knew that if he was not careful it could very well happened again.

"I couldn't finished the fight okay, this other guy showed up and knocked kakashi out, I had to get us out of there"

"So they could come after us?"

Sasuke was already beginning to think of options they had, if they sent a call out for help would it arrive on time? Naruto could see the worry and despair on his team and as much as he wanted to keep a cool level head he couldn't, zabusa might have been taken out but his partner was still out there, that information how ever was for his ears only. He didn't want to worry his teammates about that, not when they were so close to having a major break down.

"Yeah but not for at least another couple of days"

"Why is that?"

"Zabusa was almost out of chakra when I left, it will take him at least five days for him to restore it that gives us at least a week to train"

Sakura nodded, that should be enough time for kakashi to recover and be back on his feet, maybe then they could come up with something. Sasuke turned towards naruto and nodded, now that he knew that they were not in immediate danger he wanted to know one thing.

"How are you so strong?"

"Do you really want to know?"

"Yes"

"Then I will teach you, I will teach both of you how to become strong"

"How strong?"

"Strong enough"

Naruto smirked and sakura exchanged glances with sasuke, the dark haired boy smiled, he liked what he heard. Naruto nodded at them and closed his eyes he needed to rest before he head out and dealt with his little problem, he needed them to fall a sleep because all he was doing right now as buying time before the pain came.

CONTINUED…………..

KI-KOHU: it's an attack used by tenshin-han, or ti-en, the guy with the three eyes on DBZ, I think in English it's called the tri-beam. Since I have only watched the translated version of DBZ I only know the attacks based on the Spanish version. Why do I watch the Spanish version, well its not as edited as the English one.


	5. Chapter 5

TEACHER V

A year had passed since the demon fox had been killed, a year since the loss of the forth hokage, it was time to celebrate the death of the fox and morn the death of there leader, for one boy however it was a day unlike any other day. For naruto uzumaki, it was one of the worst days of his life. The villagers seem to be out for blood more so than usual; they wanted his blood, for naruto this year would be different, he knew how to fight knew how to defend himself and when the mob of people came they found a very different child waiting there wrath.

Like every year they cornered him in a dark and empty alley, each villager carrying a different weapon all ready to end his life, but this time the boy was not crying he was not pleading for his life of begging for them to leave him alone, this time the boy is blue eyes were bright with anger.

"Oh the little beast is angry is he?"

One of the villagers taunted and waved his club around trying to get a reaction out of the kid, the child however simply smiled and laughed, he was not going to run away, he was not going to cry he was going to show them what he could do.

"Yes the little beast is angry"

His barely audible voice made the villagers shiver, this was not the same abused child they tormented this boy was different; the village with the club walked closer to him and raised his weapon to strike.

"I'll show you to laugh boy!"

He swung the weapon, the boy didn't run away didn't cowered away from the blow he simply raised his hand and catches the weapons with his bare hands, the mob gasp in horror and naruto smiles. They are not going to hurt him any more; he knows how to fight now he knows how to defend himself.

"You little demon!"

The blow comes from behind and as the blond child turns around to see who has struck him he sees two-masked shinobi behind him, they are the ones supposed to protect him, they were here to help him and yet they help the villagers instead. The villagers praised the two anbu warriors and cheer when they to join in the beating of the small boy, naruto knows what will happened he knows that the beating will last trough the night and in the morning some one will come and collect him, or he would have to go home himself and tend to his wounds.

The beating however stops all too soon and when naruto opens his eyes, he sees the crowd is on the ground and one man stands before all of the villagers, the anbu stand a few feet from him before rushing the man and then falling to the ground when the man takes one-step towards them. The man smiles at naruto and kneels down before him.

"I was worried when you didn't show up"

Goku smiles and hands him a green like seed.

"W-what is this?"

"A hermit seed, go ahead it will make you feel a lot better"

Whiting second his body is mended and all bruising is gone, there will be no need for a doctor or some one to tend to his wounds, slowly naruto stand and smiles up at the man in the orange outfit.

"That was awesome, I don't feel a thing"

"That's the whole point kid, not come on were already late"

"Late?"

"Yeah, let's just say the prince of all sayains does have a schedule to keep"

"Right, right sorry"

Goku smiles and places a hand on naruto is shoulder together they vanished before the villagers is eyes, when the hokage and his anbu arrive they are surprised and distressed at the stories they hear, stories about how the demon boy vanished right before there eyes and how a demon wearing orange had come to the child is rescue. The fourth looked at the villagers and shock his head, it seem that they would never changed, they would always view naruto as nothing more than a demon.

"Kakashi, tend to the wounded and find out what has happened here"

The anbu nodded and the third looked at the two anbu that were supposed to protect naruto, they were unconscious but had no sings of being in a fight, who ever had knocked them out was a skilled warrior, one that had taken naruto with him.

"(I hope you're in good hands naruto)"

Chapter V

"HAKU"

Kakashi woke up to find himself in a comfortable mattress and that's when every thing fell apart, last thing he remember was being on the ground and a kid with a zenbon needle being stuck in his neck, sitting up he looked around the room and frowned when he didn't see his team.

"Waking up huh, are you all right?"

Turning towards the sound of his voice he saw a woman with dark haired gazing at him with concern eyes, it seem that she was the one who had provided care while he was under, reaching for his neck he frowns when he feels the puncture wound the zenbon needle left behind.

"I been better, it will be a week before I can move normally"

"See its better if you don't move so just lay down"

He hates to admit it but the woman is right, he is no condition to be moving around, just trying to sit up made him flinch with involuntary pain, whatever pressure point the kid had poked had done its job perfectly. Laying back down he smiles at the woman and closed his eyes, there is no point in trying to do much right now.

"Right"

A few moments latter and there is the all too familiar rustling of foot steps entering the room, reopening his eyes he can see his students rushing in to see if he is awake, he smiles when he sees that sakura and sasuke are all right, his smile quickly fades when he sees no blond in sight. In an instant, the memories come back and he sits straight up in his bed.

"WERE IS NARUTO?"

The last time he had seen the blond he had been fighting with zabusa.

"Relax and laid back down, naruto is with tazuna"

Kakashi frowns at that, they are supposed to be a team how could they just leave naruto out there like that, if zabusa or that mystery ninja attack there is no telling if the blond would come out of it alive. The woman with the dark haired looked at them and excused herself from the room, there was no point in staying they were going to talk about shinobi things and she would only be left out.

"Why aren't you with him? If the he is attacked"

"Relax kakashi sensei; naruto said we had a week to rest or train"

"Why did he say that?"

Sakura smiled and proceeded to tell him exactly what naruto had told them, how zabusa had exhausted his chakra in battle and how it would take him at least a week to recover, kakashi nodded and when he saw that there was no more information coming he wondered just what had happened to the second ninja. Looking at his students he realized that his students knew nothing of a second attacker, it seem that the blond had left that little detail out of his story, which was good, his students didn't need to worry about a possible attacker, not when he didn't know what had happened. Naruto had kept that information from them for a reason and until he found out what that reason was, he was not going to alarm his team.

"So how did you managed to escape?"

"Naruto did something"

"Something?"

Sakura nodded and sasuke took it up from there, but what kakashi got was nothing, the dark haired boy couldn't describe what exactly had happen only that one-minute they were in the middle of the forest and the next they were in the town.

"It was as if we moved in a blink of an eye"

The more he heard about what had happened the more kakashi was worried, naruto seem to be displaying abilities that were not of this world, no human could do what he had done. He was just a genin and yet he had managed to fend off not only one but also two attacking ninja, then after he had saved him had apparently gotten all of them to the town in a blink of an eye. How could it be possible that a boy like him posses such skills, he couldn't, his team had described something impossible and he had witnessed something that no human could do, the chakra blast, it was inhumanly possible to unleash that much chakra and not suffer any side effects from it. Naruto what ever he was was definitely not human.

"Kakashi? Is every thing all right?"

Sakura noticed the frown on her sensei and wondered what had gotten him so concern, sure, they only had five days until another attack but that shouldn't be something to worry about, naruto had taken on the assassin and won, surely kakashi would be happy that he had that kind of back up right?

"I want you two to stay away from naruto"

"W-what? Why?"

Sasuke and sakura looked at other and then turned towards kakashi, confusion was clearly written all over there faces after all this was the man who had showed them what team work was and now he was telling them to stay away from naruto. Kakashi looked away from them and took a deep breath, he could not let his team down, he knew what it would mean to ask this of them but he had no choice, there safety was his priority. Turning back towards them he could see the concern on there faces and the worry.

"He shouldn't have been able to take on zabusa; no genin has that kind of power"

Sasuke looked at his teacher and frowned, there had been a genin to wield that much power, how could kakashi forget his brother?

"What about?"

Sasuke saw the way kakashi flinched and how his voice turned dead when he spoke.

"He was different and you know how that turned out don't you?"

Sasuke froze and looked away from his teacher, he was right, itachi had been powerful but that power had proven to be deadly to his clan, now he understood why kakashi wanted them to stay away from naruto, he could very well be another itachi in the making another murdered who would slaughtered them for no reason at all.

"What are you guys talking about?! Naruto saved our lives back there!"

Sakura was beyond angry, she had seen the silent exchange between kakashi and sasuke, had seen the hidden conversation behind there words and knew that both of them had reached an agreement, they would follow trough it and leave naruto out of it. Sasuke had agreed to stay away from naruto, she could not understand why, after all naruto had offered to train them.

"Sakura please you don't understand"

"No I don't so explain it to me"

"He will betray us"

She froze at sasuke is words and looked at kakashi for confirmation, her sensei only looked away and sakura frowned, this couldn't be happening they couldn't be serious.

"I- I can't take this"

She left the room and the two left behind exchanged worried glances.

"What do you think she will do?"

"I don't know, but you and I have to train"

"Yeah train"

Kakashi noticed the far away look on the sasuke and frowned. Something else had happened, something that they weren't telling him but he knew that asking now would do him little good, he had just fractured his team and there was no way to fix it; when he returned to konoha he would have to speak to the hokage about a transfer for the blond.

XXXXX (BRIDGE) XXXXX

Naruto looked at his clones and smiled, the work was going a lot faster with them aiding in every turn, there was the occasional stumble here and there when the workers saw 14 identical blonds running all over the place, tazuna however was a man who knew how to rally his workers and how to handle himself. He worked none stop and took pride in what he was doing; of course, with a bright future before him any one would have that kind of dedication.

"So brat what do you think of the bridge?"

"No bad old man, when do you think you'll finish it?"

"If I don't die, in two weeks"

"You won't die old man you have the great naruto uzumaki watching over you"

The man smiled and some how he couldn't help but believe the blond.

"NARUTO!"

The blond turned towards the yell and frowned when he saw sakura running towards him at full speed, something had happened, ordering his clones to form a perimeter around the bridge he rushed off towards sakura.

"What wrong!?"

"Kakashi sensei"

"What about him?!"

Had that second shinobi attacked? No there was no way, he hadn't feel the any one approaching the town, there was no chakra signature as strong as that shinobi and no trace of some one hiding or masking a chakra signature.

"W-why did kakashi sensei said we had to keep away from you?!"

Her words were rushed and her voice had cracked at the end, looking at the pink haired girl he could see the despair and confusion on the girl, sakura for the most part felt like she was being torn in half. Naruto had saved them had risked his life to protect them yet how could kakashi and sasuke agreed that he would betrayed them? It didn't make any sense. Naruto tried to calm her down but the question had surprised the hell out of him, he hadn't expected kakashi to do something like this, the man was all about teamwork.

"Calm down and tell me what happened, from the beginning"

Sakura looked at naruto and frowned, how could kakashi and sasuke think that he was capable of betraying them? He was naruto for god sake, he was immature and some times annoying but despite that, despite never getting to know the blond better she knew that if need be naruto would die for them.

"He said that you should not have that much power, that you would betray us"

Naruto smirked, so this was all about power, he had frightened kakashi and now the man was taking certain measures to assure that no harm would come to sasuke or sakura, he wanted to be angry but he couldn't. Kakashi was only doing what was best for the other two; in his mind, kakashi was keeping his team safe by keeping naruto away from them.

"I see"

"Why are you smirking?! Naruto please!"

He walked closer to sakura and placed a hand on her shoulder, his eyes locked on to hers and she was surprised to see the sincerity behind the blue orbs.

"I would never betray any of you, it is true that I am strong but I became strong so that….."

"Naruto..w-what is it?"

How could he tell her the reason behind his actions? She was a relative stranger to him, she had never given him the time of day, she had joined in when the other kids teased him, how could he trust her with his one secret, whit the reason he became strong?

"I…I have to go"

He turned away from her and began to walk away, he couldn't deal with her, he couldn't deal with the whole situation. Sakura on the other hand saw the tear that had streamed down his face saw the pain in his face as he turned around, naruto couldn't betray them, he was protecting them, not only from any shinobi that would attacked them but from something far more dangerous.

"Please"

Her whisper stopped him.

"Why won't you talk to me? Why won't you defend yourself against what was said about you? If it's not true then you should go and tell them!"

"Who are you to ask me to do any thing? Why should I talk to you?"

"Naruto.."

His voice had been cold, so cold and distant that it had frightened her, how could some one sound so hollow, the despair in his voice the anger the hurt how could some one sound like that?

"I am strong, I am not a betrayer keep that in mind"

He vanished just like before and sakura was left wondering just how her team would fair against another attack, how could some one think that naruto would betray them? How could kakashi think that of some one who held such pain, she was not fooled by his cold voice, she had heard the pain the quiver in it as he spoke, she knew that he was hurting. But she knew that she couldn't help him, she was no one to demand things from him, she was just a girl who had called him annoying, who had laughed at him when others teased him, she was not the one to drive away his pain.

XXXXX (OUTSIDE OF TOWN) XXXXX

Haku looked at zabusa and tried not to smile, the mist assassin was angry, his body was refusing to move and his chakra was at a dangerous level. The fight with the blond kid had exhausted him more than he had realized and that was going to cost him in the long run, it would take him a week to recover if not more. Zabusa looked at his hand and frowned, they felt numb, his whole body was numb and he could barely move, he had tried to stand up on several occasion but failed miserably every time.

"You shouldn't move so much, your body hasn't recovered"

He glared at his companion, he was right he just didn't need to be reminded of it.

"How long are you planning on wearing that phony mask? Take it off"

He hated it when she wore the mask, how she hid behind it and how he couldn't read her.

"I have good memories of this mask; beside it served its purpose did it not?"

"So what are you waiting for? Shouldn't you be gathering information?"

Haku was always a good planer, if zabusa would get in over his head she would always arrive posing as a masked anbu to get him out of trouble, or if need be gathered some information for him regarding his enemies, she was a being unlike any he had seen. Had the capabilities that no other shinobi could have, that mask of hers served to hide her identity and then go gather the info she required with out the enemy finding out who she really was, it was the perfect cover. She of course was also the perfect being, being neither female nor male was a rare thing indeed and her talent did not go to waste, if need be she would do what was required of her; from either pleasing men or women to killing them in cold blood. She was the perfect tool to lure them away and slice there throats in a moment of passion that was his haku.

"I wanted to make sure that you were all right, after all if I hadn't intervene you'll be dead now that much is certain"

"That's why I keep you around"

Haku smiled, zabusa was angry but he always seem to know the right words to make her feel special, that is why she was with this man because despite every thing he was her master and she would die for the man who had given her a purpose, for the man that had saved her life.

"The mist is clearing…next time will you be all right?"

Zabusa wondered about the blond and the fight he had been in, the genin was no ordinary boy and if he was to come out the victor in there next fight he needed information.

"Once you gathered enough information, both kakashi and that brat are as good as dead"

Haku nodded and smiled, it seem that she would have to go in any way but she didn't mind, once she gathered what she needed she would killed them, just like she had killed all others that stood in there way.

XXXXX (TAZUNA IS HOME) XXXXX

Kakashi summoned his student to gather around him, when zabusa returned he wanted to be ready for him so they needed to prepare as soon as possible. Glancing briefly at naruto he saw the far away look on his face and knew that something had happened; looking towards sakura he guessed what that something was. He however had no time to deal with the fall out of there conversation or any problems in the team, sasuke and sakura needed to be ready to face off against zabusa and that masked boy again.

"Since we know zabusa is alive we need to be prepare for when he strikes"

"Why bother the kid here did all right"

Tazuna smiled and patted naruto on the back, the blond just turned to him and smiled, at least some one appreciated what he had done.

"What he failed to tell you all was that there was some one with zabusa"

The others turned there stares at naruto, the boy just shock his head of course kakashi was going to use this to discredit him even further, keeping calm he simply nods confirming what kakashi had said was true. Sakura and sasuke exchange quick glances and now realized what that hidden conversation in the forest was, they both knew that naruto and kakashi had been acting off and now they knew why, it seem that they had another after assassin them.

Kakashi hated to resort to such tactics but he needed his team to take the situation seriously by telling them of the second assassin they would be more focused on the mission at hand, they wouldn't just try to train and do there best they would be forced to focus completely on there training.

"Wow kid you took on two assassins and lived?"

Tazunas is voice was surprised and a little proud, if the brat had been able to take on two assassins then they did not need to worry about a thing.

"I guess"

Naruto was not good at taking praise, but was thankful to the old man for realizing what he had done and admitting that he had at least done something right, that they shouldn't mistrust him just because he keep them on the dark about a second attacker.

"Don't get a big head naruto, they still got away"

The reprimand in kakashi is voice made naruto frown, he didn't like to be lecture not by some one who had deemed him a traitor, he had been judged before he was given the chance the prove himself. Fixing kakashi with a glare, he smirked and rolled his eyes.

"Jeez kakashi I couldn't fight with you on my back now could I?"

Kakashi froze at that comment and at the venom behind those words, both sasuke and sakura flinched and looked away, they couldn't help but fell that naruto was right on this one. Naruto had saved there lives so the least they could do was give him the benefit of the doubt, that what sakura thought as for the uchiha he just clenched his fist and remembered how useless he had been in the fight. Kakashi feeling the tension begin to fill the room decided to change the subject and focus on what there training would consist of.

"We need to prepare quickly, hesitation leads to disaster"

All focused turned to that subject, if they were going to be attack then they needed to prepare, sakura how ever was not as exited by those words not when kakashi could barely move.

"How can we do that? You can barely move"

"I can still train you"

The words were like a cold bucket of water for both sakura and sasuke, they adverted there eyes from there teacher and from naruto, both of them remembered how naruto had offered to train them and to make them strong. Kakashi looked at his team confused, there was one thing to be nervous about being attacked but they should be happy that they were going to train; naruto however had seen the way the team reacted and opted to let them off the hook. He knew that they were being placed in an awkward position and that kakashi is words had reminded them that he had offered to train them first, standing up he heads for the door and smiles back at the group that is now focused on him.

"I think I take my chances on my own"

The jounin frowned and shock his head, something had happened with his team and naruto and as much as he wanted to find out what had happened he knew that it would have to wait, his team needed to be ready.

"Care to tell me what that was about?"

Sasuke and sakura adverted there gaze and the jounin frowned; this was getting far more complicated than it should.

"It's just, I don't think some last minute training will makes us strong enough to face zabusa, you could barely defeat him even with your sharingan"

Kakashi frowned, it was as if his team was beaten before they battle had began; he had a lot of work ahead of him. Outside the room naruto looked at the boy that had been listening in on there conversation and raised an eyebrow the kid was glaring at him openly, his eyes filled with anger and hurt.

"What's your problem kid?"

"You're all going to die"

Naruto smirked, this kid was broken, he could see it in his eyes; the fight had been taken out of him a long time ago.

"Your probably right kid, but that's how life is and all you can do is move forward"

"W-what?"

The kid took a step back and naruto smiled, leaning down he fixed the kid with a death glare and pushed his bucket hat off.

"All of us could die kid, that's life what matters is how you lived it and if you died fighting for what you believe in or died being a coward"

With those words, the orange wearing ninja walked away from the child leaving behind a very confused child looking at his retreating back.

"That was very rude of you inari"

Turning towards his mother who had come out of the room were the blond had been in he frowned and shock his head.

"But mom you know what will happen to them! Gato will come and wipe them all out!"

"I don't think so son"

"W-what why?"

"Because your father had the same eyes as that boy"

Inari looked at his mother and frowned, how could she say that about some one she barely knew, how could she compare that kid to his father? It was not right, he shock his head and rushed away from her. Inari is mother took a deep breath, if inari could only see the strength behind the boy is eyes then maybe he would understand.

"Say get the crutches ready"

"W-what?"

"The Cyclops wants to go to the near by forest to train the brats"

"Oh all right"

XXXXX (THE FOREST OF CHAKRA) XXXXX

Kakashi looked at his team and smiled, the first thing they needed to do was have a better control over there chakra, to distribute it properly and how to handle it better in battle, what worried him the most was the fact that neither of them seem to have there heads fully on the task at hand. Something told kakashi that they were thinking about naruto and about what had happened on both the battlefield and about how strong he seem to be, kakashi had a pretty food idea what each one of them was thinking.

Sasuke was thinking about how strong this training would make him and about the blond is strength, sakura was thinking along the same lines only she was more concern about his words and warning of staying away from him. He felt as if his world was turning upside down, thinking back about his own team he wondered what they would think of this mess; shaking his head he focused back on the mission at hand, he would reminisce later.

"All right training starts now, first we will begin with a review of chakra; the ninja is basic source of power, understanding chakra is essential"

"Ah kakashi sensei we already know that"

Looking at the pink hair girl he could see the frustration on her face and the annoyance on sasuke, it seem that neither one of them wanted to understand just what he was talking about. His suspicions were confirmed when sasuke opened his mouth.

"We already are using chakra energy on our jutsu; shouldn't we focus on learning the jutsu?"

He frowned and shakes his head, they might know how to use it but they didn't have the slightest understanding of what chakra could really do; It was one thing to use it was a completely different thing to understand it.

"No, your not mastered this power you barely scratched the surface of it"

"What do you mean?"

"You have to draw on physical and spiritual energy and combine them within yourself, but how do you do that?"

Sasuke and sakura exchanged quick glances and kakashi frowned, it was clear that they had no idea what he was talking about, he figured that the best way to get this over with was a quick explanation, that would suffice with sakura, sasuke he wasn't so sure. While it was true that the kid was a prodigy he didn't have the brain sakura had, he was more of a hand on approach, just like naruto.

"Ok how?"

"Each jutsu required different types of chakra with different proportions; you must select and combine them in exactly the right way, until now you just guessed the proportions hoping to get it right. Even if you produce a lot of chakra unless you can balance and control it its all worthless the jutsu will not work at all or it will just be a joke, you waste so much energy that way that you are all out of chakra and you can't fight at all"

"So how do we change that?"

It seem that sasuke had gotten the point, his focused had shifted from some what annoyed to completely interested in a couple of seconds, sakura on the other hand seem to be already getting what he was trying to say. The girl seem to know what he was talking about and by the way she was looking at him was just expecting him to tell them what needed to be done so that she could do it, there was no doubt in kakashi is mind that she was more brains than brawn.

"Train so hard that controlling your chakra becomes second nature, to achieve this goal you must be ready to put your life on the line"

"What do we have to do exactly?"

Sakura is mind was beginning to wonder about the possibilities, what would this training consist off? A sparing match? If that was the case then she had no hope of ever reaching the level of control kakashi was talking about, sasuke was the only one who was here and if he spared with her then she was going to lose before she could put in practice the lesson kakashi wanted to teach them. Kakashi began to chuckle when he saw the serious expression on his student is face and wondered what they could think of his next words.

"Clime a tree"

"WHAT?!"

Two screams and kakashi smirked; while it was true that your life would depend on your mastery of chakra right now all they needed to do was learn the basic, which would be enough.

"That's right but there one rule, no hands"

"You're kidding"

"Am I?"

With that said he formed a hand sing and then a gust of chakra pushed some dust away from his feet, slowly he walked towards a near by three and began to clime it straight up only using his feet, kakashi smirked and reached a near by branch. Attaching himself to it he just hung from it, his feet stuck to the branch as if he was some kind of spider man.

"Well you get the idea, focus the chakra towards the sole of your feet and use it to connect to the tree; this is one way to apply the power of chakra"

"That's a nice trick but how does that helps us fight zabusa?"

Sasuke had to agree, it was one thing to learn to clime trees but man who was after them had taken out kakashi himself, how the hell was climbing a three supposed to help them fight him? Kakashi noticed the doubt in his student and frowned, he knew that this was not the kind of training they wanted but they were only genin this was the basics. Sasuke turned to sakura and frowned, he could see that sakura had the same expression on her face; she wasn't convince either.

"It's the only way to fight him, first you will learn to draw a precise amount of chakra to a precise point in your body, this is difficult even to advance ninja, this type of climbing requires a subtle mix of spiritual and physical energy and the bottoms of the feet are the most difficult point to focus chakra. If you can mastered this you will be able to master any jutsu"

He didn't need to tell them that the last part was only a theory and that there was a second step to this little exercise, but since they were going into battle soon he didn't need to worry his team about small details like that.

"All right I get it so any thing else?"

Sasuke was tired of this little show, if the walking on trees was so important he needed to learn it fast and see if it worked or if it would be another useless exercise.

"The second point is to maintain your chakra levels, when a ninja is focused on battle it's even harder to control and maintain his chakra levels a deadly mistake, to avoid this maintaining chakra must become second nature. I can talk about this all day but that wont advance your skills, you need to apply the power of chakra trough training"

Throwing a couple of kunai knifes in front of his students he smiles and gives them there assignment, they have to clime a tree an mark the tree at the highest point they could clime with out using there hands after that they would need to past that mark and so on so on. Just as he was finishing his lecture on what they needed to do, he felt a huge surge of chakra and the ground began to tremble.

"K-kakashi sensei w-what's going on!?"

The whole place began to shake so much that he couldn't hold his grip on the three branch, falling to the ground he barely managed to twist in mid air and land on his feet, what ever was causing this was a monster, the level of chakra he was feeling was unlike any thing he had ever felt before.

"I don't know sakura but"

His words died in his mouth when the trembling suddenly ceased and every thing turned back to normal, what ever or who ever had caused that much trembling was not human.

"What the hell was that kakashi?"

"I don't know but it was not human"

XXXXX (SOUTH SIDE OF FOREST) XXXXX

Naruto took a deep breath and fell to the ground, he had been holding back every thing since the night before; he had felt the red chakra pushing forwards as if trying to free itself but luckily, he had managed to maintain his physical side effects under control. Unfortunately he had reached his breaking point and he couldn't hold it in any more He needed to push the red chakra back and control the killing urges he got from what he now knew was the demon trying to influence him. Goku had mentioned the two chakras and when mizuki had told him about the demon he had put two and two together, the only problem was that this time he had to unleash a massive amount of his own chakra to push the demon back under control.

This was the second time he had felt the side effects of that cursed chakra, the first time they went away on there own but this time, this time he had to pushed them back to force himself to not give in, what ever was happening to him was becoming more serious than he had first originally thought. Sure he had trouble before but only with chakra control and distribution, it seem that every time he used chakra some of the red chakra was always in wait, just waiting for him to use his chakra and leek out more and more. This caused him some difficulty during training, every thing he used chakra and the red one came along for the ride his whole body felt like it was burning after he had used it, goku had told him how to solve it, he just needed to force the red chakra down and allow him own to be the dominant one.

Looking to the sky, he wondered if goku knew what he was doing, did he know about the demon. Or had he just assumed he had two chakra and that was the end of it? He couldn't know and as much as he wanted to go and ask the man he had no way to contact him, goku always came to him, always knew when he needed him. Shaking his head, he touches his whisker marks and thinks that maybe just maybe he is becoming the demon kakashi fears so much.

"Are you all right?"

"Come alone this time?"

She had almost snuck up on him, almost, if he weren't so weak he would have sense her earlier, sniffing the air around him he found her scent confusing. She smelt different, frowning he realized what he had done and shock his head, since when did he sniff the air around him?

"Excuse me?"

Naruto raised an eyebrow, the confuse look was cute but he was not fooled, she had the same chakra signature as the nin who had attacked him along side zabusa, there was no mistaking it, aside from that she was having trouble hiding her chakra, it seem that his little display had unnerved her.

"My mistake"

If she wanted to play this little game, he would play it; he was ready for any thing she had to throw, that is what he believed until she opened her eyes and those big brown-eyes stared back at him, eyes so familiar that they were frightening. If she looked cute before she was beautiful now.

"W-who are you?"

She smiled and walked towards him, maybe she could pull this off after all. She smiled her curios smile and made a mental note that he was only watching her eyes, shame the smile she had just delivered would have men begging to be with her, this boy however was quite different and if that little display she had just witnessed was any indication he was also extremely powerful.

"My name is haku"

Haku could see that the boy had not dropped his guard, something bout his blue eyes told her that he had done so before and had been hurt, those eyes, so blue and so filled with despair. He could mask the pain and pretend as if nothing was wrong with him but she could see trough all of his defenses, she could see the lonely boy behind the mask.

"W-what is your name?"

Naruto heard the tremble in her voice and took a step back, her eyes shifted once again and for a moment he saw a flicker of recognition in her eyes, as if she had seen beyond his shield and barrier, as if she had broken the charade he displayed for others.

"I am naruto"

She couldn't help but look at his eyes, just as he couldn't help but stare at hers, it seem as if time slowed down around them and all that existed was the silent battle between them. She fighting to understand how a boy held so much pain within him, how he was so like her. He fighting to remain hidden, tying to mask what ever she had seen while also trying to understand why her eyes held such attraction, why they seem to hold him in his place and why he wanted to take her in his arms and shared his pain with her.

"Who are you?"

Both spoke the same words and both froze, they were alike they held the same eyes and shared the same pain, they had found each other, because they both realized that they had been looking for one another all along, because they shared so much that they were kindred spirits.

Destined to meet, destined to be so much more to one another, destined to fight because for people like them there was no other road; for them the pain would always remained even now when they had realized that they were not alone in the world. They took no solace in it because in the end they were more than kindred spirits, more than soul mates, they were enemies.

Nothing could change that.

CONTINUED………………………….


	6. Chapter 6

the words in the middle of parentesis are thoughts

TEACHER VI

Super speed, it was called that because of the way you moved, because you moved faster than the eye could follow and naruto uzumaki had reached that level of speed, he had mastered it and yet it was not enough, he could not keep up with the way Vegeta moved. They had been sparing for what seem like days now, an on going battle to see just how much naruto had improved on his skills as a fighter. From the sidelines goku watched and frowned, he was not impressed, the kid had managed to impress all of his friend but so far he had yet to reach that level, his or vegeta is speed and strength, something was slowing him down.

"What's the matter kid? Can't keep up?"

Naruto clenched his teeth in anger; there was no way this was possible his speed his strength it was to much, his eyes could barely keep up with the prince is movements so how the hell did he expect him to counter his blows. It was impossible.

"I can't"

Goku frowned and vegeta laughed aloud, this was kakarot is protégée? How could that be? The kid gave up way to easy, hearing the man is laughter goku frowned and appeared beside naruto.

"Why?"

Naruto looked up at him but he quickly turned away from his sensei is gaze, he couldn't face him, could not face the fact that he was letting him down, that he was letting himself down.

"I……"

"Don't hold back"

"W-what?"

"Use it naruto"

The blond turned towards goku and frowned, there was no way he was telling him to actually use his other chakra, they didn't even know what would happen.

"What's the matter runt? Bit more than you could chew?"

Naruto looked at vegeta and saw the man smirk, he knew that it was only the prince is way of encouraging him but it was annoying as hell, he was not from this world how could he expect him to achieve there strength? How could they expect so much of him?

"Don't count him out yet vegeta, he landed a solid punch on gohan"

"If the runt can land a solid punch on me then I will personally train the brat along side you"

Naruto looked at the prince of all sayains and then at goku, he could see the smile on the man is face, goku knelt before him and placed a hand on naruto is shoulder. His eyes fixed on goku and the man just nodded.

"Let it all go"

Goku vanished and naruto closed his eyes, could he do such a thing? He had never in his life let his emotions get the better of him, ever since he could remember he had been holding every thing back, his pain, his sorrow, every thing was always held back.

"What's the matter? Are you going to cry?"

Cry? He had not cried since he was a 3 years old, he remembered how the villagers laughed at his pain, how they smiled when they saw him shed his tears.

"Don't be pathetic and fight me"

He was weak, he had not been able to understand, he had cried when he felt pain or when he felt sad and all they ever did was laugh at him.

"BE A WARRIOR AND FIGHT!"

Vegeta is yelling made naruto flinched, they always yelled at him; they always looked at him as if he was nothing.

"I…I…"

"You are nothing"

Vegeta turned around and began to walk away from naruto, the blond is body froze, he was some one, he was going to be a shinobi and then he would become hokage and there was no one who would stand in his way, no one was going to block his path to being somebody.

"I AM SOMEBODY!"

SHAKKOOOOMMM

The explosion shock the whole area and a bright flash of red darkened the sky, vegeta turned around and saw the boy is blood red eyes glaring at him, but what surprised him the most was the pain he saw behind those eyes, the pain of being weak.

"W-what is this?"

The blond boy was covered in red energy, he frowned when he felt the blood lust emanating from it, the ki was different than the boy is original one, and it was alive.

"I AM SOMEBODY!"

With a flash of speed, naruto vanished and appeared inches away from the sayain prince, vegeta grunted and barely managed to dodge the first punch, but then they kept coming, one after another. Naruto felt his whole body burning with anger, all he wanted to do was make him take his words back, all he wanted to do was prove that he was somebody that he was not a loser that he could become something more. Vegeta frowned when he felt the shift once more, he was to his left now and was throwing a right hook followed by an upper cut and a series of kicks, the speed had doubled in mere seconds.

The prince smirked and shock his head the kid was increasing his speed and power by leaps and bounds, every second he fought he had to increase his own speed and block or dodge the attacks the child was throwing him, he smiled remembering trunks; his son was just about the kid is level when he turned super sayain. Then it happened, he had been too deep in thought that he had dodged the right punch but he had failed to see the left kick and it had connected.

The prince of all sayains had been kicked in the head and had been sent crashing into a near by mountain, naruto stopped and looked at his hands, they had grown into claws his body felt like it was on fire but he had made it, he had managed to connect with a direct hit.

"Bravo naruto, you did it"

Naruto turned around and with out thinking unleashed a punch towards goku, his sensei simply held out his finger and stopped the punch, the energy naruto had unleashed grew smaller and soon it all but vanished, goku smiled and patted the boy on the head he had finally reached a level beyond human.

"I….i don't know w-why I"

"Don't worry about it"

Goku smiled and then frowned when he felt vegeta is ki explode from behind naruto, the mountain turned rubble exploded and in the center stood a very happy super vegeta. Naruto turned towards the man and shock his head in disbelief; he had just crashed into a mountain and yet he was standing and walking towards them as if nothing had happened.

"Ok brat, you will now be training under me and you will become the greatest human warrior alive"

"W-what?"

"That's right kid; you think kakarot is hard on you? You think piccolo is tough. Just wait till I get trough with you"

"B-but I had I thought I had"

Vegeta smirked, a few sparring lessons and the brat thought that he had been training him not very bright but then again neither was kakarot and he was a by far the strongest being alive, so the kid was not all that different, goku smirked and patted vegeta on the shoulder.

"Just don't kill him"

"I won't"

"But I thought"

Naruto frowned and wanted to puke, hadn't all those sessions with vegeta been training? He looked at the two men and frowned.

"Don't worry naruto those were just sparring matched to help you in increase your body is resistance to punishment"

"Right"

The blond child just frowned and fainted on the spot.

TEACHER VI

"BROKEN"

"Who are you?"

They spoke at the same time and neither could answer the question, how could they when they themselves did not known the answer to it, naruto shock his head and looked away, once there little staring match was over there little daze spell seem to end and naruto finally found his voice.

"I am a shinobi"

Haku nodded to herself, she knew that but she also knew that he was doing this for her sake as much as for his own; they had found something in each other that was both frightening and exiting at the same time.

"Oh? Are you training?"

Naruto smile and nodded but still avoided the girl is eyes as she did his, there was no point in them staring at each other and wondering of what ifs when nothing could be done about there situation. They were both ninja they knew the rules and what the stakes were so there was no point in dwelling and wasting more time on something that could never be, so she would finished her mission and he would do what needed to be done because that was the path that they had chosen and both of them knew this.

"I was, until you arrived"

She smiled but continued to look at the ground not noticing that he was looking at the sky above.

"Oh don't mind me, I am just collecting herbs"

Naruto turned to stared down at her and smiled when he saw her holding a basket, it seem that zabusa had suffered some damage since she was looking for something to help him recover quicker.

"Are you hurt?"

She shock her head and smiled, this conversation seem so natural and with out pretence that she had second thoughts about continuing the lie, but despite herself she could not hold back her tongue or the words that slipped out of her mouth.

"It is not for me"

Naruto smiled and knelt down, he knew whom the medicine was from and he wouldn't mind helping her find the right plants if it meant spending more time with her.

"Is this the plant you want?"

Haku turned towards him and smiled, she kneels down beside him and shakes her head in the negative. Her brain was screaming at her to stop what she was doing to pull away from this before she got in too deep but she couldn't help herself, she knew that despite knowing what her mission was and knowing what she had to do she found herself engaging the boy in conversation and being friendly to him.

"This plant is medicine?"

"That is a weed, but thank you for helping out"

Naruto looked at the plant in his hand and smiles while scratching the back of his head, haku shock her head and smiled at the boy, all the while naruto began too blush and closed his eyes. He was acting like such a fool and yet she was not making fun of him or teasing him or to a more extreme hitting, as sakura would. She was just looking at him with a warm and inviting smile, a smile that he could not look away from.

"No problem, I mean you are working really early so this person must be pretty special too you"

She frowned and looked away, how could she describe what she felt for the man that had given her all and show her what it meant to live? She couldn't not with out revealing a painful part of her past, a part she didn't feel comfortable revealing to this boy she had just meet, not when she was supposed to be gathering information from him not getting to known him better. So she simply smiled and nodded, she had to divert the conversation away from the subject of zabusa or she would divulge more than she wanted too.

"So why are you training? You seem pretty strong to me"

Changing the subject so suddenly might seem suspicious but she had no choice she couldn't talk about zabusa, naruto saw the discomfort on the girl is face and closed his eyes. He couldn't expect her to just open up to him about personal matters, not when she hardly knew him and was probably just here to gather information from him or kill him.

"I want to become stronger"

Haku could see the far away look on naruto is face, a look that she knew all to well, despite his outward behavior the boy was a conflicting mass of sorrow and loneliness, constantly being tortured by memories of his childhood and the desire to not be alone any more. She had been once been like him trying to find a reason to live, wanting to give up and just end it.

"Why is that?"

When the question was asked she wanted to take it back, she knew she had no right to ask any thing of him but his eyes told her that he was glad to try and answer her, despite knowing who she was and why she was here he seem to not mind her at all. Glancing away from him, she realized just how desperate he was for some one to notice him, to just talk to him.

"To survive"

He had no one, she realized and she wondered what it was like, to live for so long and have no one, to be all alone. She glanced at him and saw the far away look on his face, she knew the look all too well, she had worn it a long time ago a time before zabusa, a hollow mask to hide the pain and the fear. The mask was a painful reminder of her past and of what she had once endured; this boy was like a living memory.

"You do have some one who is important to you?"

He smiled a cold and dead smiled and turned towards her with such hollow eyes that brought memories of a time best forgotten.

"I don't really have any one….."

"Oh"

Haku frowned when he saw the look on the boy is face, he had stood up from his crouching position and moved a few feet away from her, even now, he was shielding whom he truly was and keeping his walls up. She should drop the subject and just let it go but she could not, so she followed and stepped right along side him and she tried to glance at his face but he was facing downwards and his face was being hidden by the shadows.

The only thing that glimmered how ever was a tear that fell from the shadows, naruto lifted his hand to his face and rubbed his eyes, he couldn't be doing this not when she was here when he knew what was at stake.

"It's ok"

She placed her hand on his shoulder and was surprised by his reaction, not only did he pull away from it but he had flinched by the touch almost as if it had hurt him.

"I have to go"

"Wait"

But he didn't, he just blinked out of her sight and despite her eyes scanning the area and searching for any sing of him she was un able to find any trace of his presence. She took in a deep breath and shock her head, the situation was getting far to complicated for her own good, it had taken her only a moment to realize that she had grown attached to the boy. Unfortunately, she had ignored her instincts to run away and had stayed to figure out the boy only to find herself more intrigued by him.

"You sure this is were it came from?"

Haku frowned when she heard the voice of the dark haired boy, it seem that the copycat had felt the massive pulse of chakra that naruto had created and decided to investigate. Jumping away from the clearing she hides herself on a near by tree and decided to see what naruto is team was like, and why he said he had no one. As team, kakashi entered the clearing she smiled when she saw that it was only the black hair kid with the jounin, it seems the pink hair girl was not with them.

"Positive that chakra, I couldn't of mistaken it"

"Huh?"

Sasuke looked at kakashi and raised an eye brow the way kakashi was speaking was worrying him, the man was not the serious type, even in training he was usually relax and would crack stupid jokes but this time it was different, something had spooked the man.

"Nothing, just remember what I told you"

The uchiha nodded.

"Stay away from naruto, right I got it that how ever still leaves sakura"

Kakashi nodded in understanding, despite his warning to the girl, he knew that she would not listen, the girl disliked naruto to no end but she felt loyal to him because he had saved them and they were on the same team. The copycat felt like trash for the way he was acting but the last thing he wanted to do was have the deaths of his first students hanging over his head, he had too many deaths in his conscience already he didn't need to add two more.

"Sakura barely tolerates him, she will come around eventually"

What Kakashi didn't tell the last uchiha was the fact that the pink hair girl would never jeopardize her chances at being with sasuke by siding with naruto, her fear of pushing sasuke away would eventually win over.

"Right, so what's next on our training?"

"You have to reach the top of the three first sasuke"

Kakashi smiled and the boy glared at him while walking away leaving kakashi behind, the copycat looked at the area and frowned, he didn't need any more proof that he was doing the right thing, the chakra pulse he had felt belonged to the fox demon. There was no mistaking it and that only meant that whatever strength naruto had gotten from the fox it was getting out of hand or else naruto wouldn't need to expel such a massive amount of power when not in a fight.

Kakashi turned away from the area following sasuke his mind made up, he had decided to talk to the hokage once back in konoha, if the fox was getting lose then his team was not the only one in danger. Even if naruto was not the demon there was no telling what the demon had done to him to make him be able to take on a jounin of zabusa is level and survived. On the tree tops haku frowned and glared at the silver haired man, the way he spoke of naruto reminded her all to well about the treatment she had gotten when she lived in the alleys of the village hidden in the mist.

Now she understood what naruto had said, if the boy is own teacher feared him what would his village life be like? Shaking her head, she tries to fend of the memories of the past and of her time in her own personal hellhole. the blond she had just meet was in his own hell right now and had no one to save him, she had escaped that life but she had zabusa the blond had no one, no real connection with any one. There was no way he could understand what true strength was, that is why he kept training, why he fought; he was searching for his answer.

Rushing away from the forest clearing, she arrives at her temporary home and enters the small shelter; putting her herbs away, she goes into the bedroom and smiles at the sight of zabusa struggling to crush an apple with his hand. He has been doing that stupid exercise ever since his fight with kakashi. She smiles more when the apple finally gives in and is crushed by the man is brute strength.

"You're almost all better"

Haku is voice brought zabusa out of his thoughts. He smiled when he saw haku coming trough outside door, it seem that she had finished gathering her herbs and had missed gatou is little threat, he knew how haku dislike the little bastard and if she had witness there little chat she would have no doubt taken action and either broken the man is arm or kill him. Still she couldn't let her know what the man had done, she was already worried enough as it was, and now with the little incident that had just occurred he was beginning to think that she had been right. The man was not to be trusted, but they were already in to deep and beside that, he would not let that little blond brat get away with making a fool out of him.

"We should get going soon, what have you found out?"

Zabusa sat up on the bed and glanced at haku and haku froze, she had failed at her mission and that was unacceptable, for the first time since she had started working with zabusa she didn't know what to say to him. The blond had been to distracting, he had keep of off guard and had even managed to lower her defenses; she closed her eyes and looked at the ground. Zabusa is eyes widen. She had failed him! His eyes glared at the girl and his body let out enough killer intent to make her fall to her knees, he growled out lout and cursed at her.

"You failed?!"

"I'm sorry zabusa-sama"

"Sorry isn't good enough; your worthless…don't fail me again"

Haku nodded and left the room, she could still feel the man is killer intent filling the room, shaking her dead she promises herself that next time it will be different, next time she will not fail.

**xxxxxx(4 days later)xxxxxx**

Sakura looked at the bridge builder and smiled. The old man might be a drunk but he sure knew his craft, the work was coming along nicely and there was no sing of zabusa or that mask ninja, still she just wished that sasuke were here with her; unfortunately, he had to finish his training with kakashi. after the way he had failed to clime the tree there was no way he would be doing any thing else but training . The girl could still remember the small glare sasuke had sent her way when she had climbed all the way to the top of the tree, instead of praising her; he was angry at her success and as discomforting as his glared had been it also had made her doubt herself.

The way he had acted made her think long and hard about why she was a ninja, when she had first entered the ninja academy her parents had been somewhat disappointed but had supported her all the way, in all the years her family had lived in the village no haruno had ever been a ninja. She was the first and she had set her sight at being the best, for sasuke? Every thing had been about that boy, ever since before the ninja academy when ino had spoken about how he had survived the massacre of his family and of how he would be her boyfriend.

At first sakura had just dismissed ino is obsession with the last uchiha and like a good friend she had supported the girl in her crush, that was until the little incident and there fight, when they had become rivals and had sought out the attention of the uchiha. Ever since then her sole focus had been to be noticed by sasuke and in order for that to happen she had to excel at being a good ninja, or at least that is what she thought. The way sasuke had acted just now when training had place a dark seed in her mind and heart, if he would not noticed her for being a good ninja then what else could she do?

"You ok girl?"

Tazuna had seen the girl staring out at the ocean for a while now, it seem that she was worried about something but not about an attack or about guarding him, she seem preoccupied with something else entirely.

"Y-yes I was just wondering were the others were"

"Really? I thought you might be thinking about that dark haired kid"

The blush he received in return confirmed what he had been thinking all along, the way the girl praised the dark haired kid was a clear indication at what she felt towards him, he smiled when he thought about the blond loud mouth, poor kid would be crushed when he found out that the pink hair was out of reach.

"W-why do you say that?"

"You have the same eyes my daughter had when she meet inari is father"

Sakura turned away from him and shock her head; she couldn't be that obvious, could she? Then again if tazuna had noticed and he was a drunk then that meant that kakashi and sasuke knew of her feelings as well. Tazuna saw the way the girl is mood changed from embarrassed to full-blown depression, it seems that his words had only served to worsen the situation.

"Am I really that obvious?"

The man smiled and scratched the back of his head, what could he say? He had already opened his mouth once and had only served to make the situation a lot worse, now she was asking him something that could get him in over his head, the girl was a classic case of teenagers that were in love. Infatuated with the good-looking smart and cool looking guy. A guy who would probably dump you when something else got his interest all the while ignoring the nice guy. Oh, he had seen this many time during the course of his life but now he was in a position to do something about it.

The girl was a nice enough kid and she was risking her life trying to protect him so a little bit of guidance from his part was the least he could do, sitting down beside her he smiled and took a deep breath, it had been a while since he had a father daughter talk.

"You are"

"Oh god"

As expected the girl was mortified and he just chuckled, no matter what country or place teenagers were alike, here was a pretty smart and beautiful girl that went to pieces as soon as she found out that the boy she liked knew how she felt and had done nothing to show her that he liked her too.

"Saying that here is a piece of advice, let him go and move on"

Sakura snapped out of her self-loathing and stared at the old man with an incredulous look, she understood why he had said it, and after all, he didn't known that she and sasuke were meant to be together so she would let it slide for now.

"I"

"I known what you think"

He interrupted her because he knew what was coming, every one defended there position when they thought they were right but for a love sick teenager to tell him or she that they were wrong was like brining there whole world down, like ripping there hearts out of there chest and squashing it. Sakura for the most part just stared at the old man and saw that he was not drunk like she had originally believed, he was sober and his face held a seriousness that reminded her of her father and mother back home.

"But your are wrong, if it was obvious for me to noticed you like the brat then he knows how you feel as well, but has he ever made any indication that he might like you?"

Sakura stayed silent giving tazuna his answer, more than that it revealed that the boy had never once noticed the girl, never once gave her any indication that he might like her or that he noticed her for that matter. Taking a deep breath he prepared for what he was about to say next and hoped that the girl didn't take it to hard.

"Does he even notice you?"

Sakura looked down ant shock her head, tears were already falling from her face and tazusa took a deep breath, this was as heart breaking now as it had been when he had told his daughter the same thing. He just hoped that this girl listened and didn't end up or go trough all the hardships his own daughter went trough. As for sakura the girl just sobbed and rubbed her eyes in anger, sasuke didn't noticed her he dislike her, he thought of her as annoying when they had first gotten together as a team and just now in the forest he had glared at her for exceeding in her training.

"N-no…."

With those words she rushed away from the bridge forgetting her duties, tazuna wanted to shout at her and tell her to stop but he knew that the girl needed time alone, turning towards his workers he cursed when he saw them staring at the girl. She was supposed to be there protection after all and now she was running away from the bridge they had a right to be concern, standing up he walks towards them and smiles.

"Today we finished early guys!"

They nodded and left the bridge, all of then ran and tazuna shock his head the fear they all held would end just as soon as his bridge was build, slowly he packed his stuff and headed home; he only glanced back at the area were sakura had ran and wondered if she would be all right. Arriving on his house he was confronted by a very angry blond, it seem that an enemy shinobi was running around and sakura was not the fighter type, he cursed and told the kid what had happened

"After that I don't know were she ran off too"

Naruto shock his head and took a deep breath, the last thing he needed was a missing sakura. Opening his senses, he found sakura on the outskirts of town luckily; she was alone.

"I'll be back later"

Tazuna was about to tell him to stop when the kid just vanished, he turned towards his daughter who had come in to check on his and saw the look of surprised on her face; he smiled and just shock his head.

"Don't ask me they're ninjas"

In the forest, naruto appeared in a three and saw the pink hair girl crying, what ever had happened in the bridge had her riled so he didn't need to startle her any more than he had to. Jumping downwards, he managed to get her attention and a kunai thrown his way, sakura gasped a second latter realizing what she had done, but her surprised was unwarranted as naruto simply reached out and grasped the kunai by the handle. The girl was now staring wide eyed at the blond; all the while naruto simply smirked back.

"You know that could have hurt"

"H-how did you?"

"Lots and lots of training"

She saw the look on his eyes and the concern hidden behind them, despite every thing that kakashi and sasuke had said she couldn't believe that naruto would ever turn on them, that he was dangerous, after all what kind of betrayer or dangerous person would offer to help them train, to get them stronger. Naruto could not be what the others thought of him.

"Naruto why are they afraid of you?"

The question caught him off guard and he simply smiled, there was no telling were that question had come from but he knew that there was no way he could answer her question.

"I don't know, but I came to see how you were doing"

Despite already knowing what had happened, he was not going to let her known that, he remembered reading some were that girls were particularly moody and emotional when it came to personal matters, so it was better to let her open up on her own ratter than tell her that he already knew every thing.

"W-what? There is nothing wrong with me"

"Your eyes are red and puffy"

He knew she would deny every thing, but he still had to try, she might not be a friend but she was his teammate after all.

"That doesn't mean any thing!"

"Sakura, come on what's wrong?"

She had been in the forest for a while and in all that, time there was only one thing in her mind, sasuke. The boy who had been the cause of all the chaos on her mind, on one hand she could simply try harder to get him to notice her, on the other one she could just give up on sasuke and focus on being a good ninja. Then there was naruto, she was divided between being loyal to him or sticking to the warning her teacher and team mated had given her, adverting her gaze away from him the pink hair ninja took a deep breath and shock her head.

"We are supposed to be a team but every thing kakashi said was a lie, they don't trust you and I am only here because of sasuke"

"W-what?"

"I don't know what I will do, but in the mean time I can't stop fighting, I can't let go of sasuke not now"

Naruto smirked and shock his head, he understood were she was coming from and couldn't blame her for making her choice, sasuke was her every thing after all. Deciding to keep quiet on what he knew he decided it was better to let her deal with this on her own.

"All right"

Sakura looked up at him and took a deep breath, it seem that naruto was not as thick headed as he appeared to be, taking a deep breath she tried to reassure herself that what she had done was the right thing, but she couldn't convince herself of that fact. As for naruto he simply smiled at her and nodded, he couldn't very well expect her to just give up on the boy whom she had spend almost half of her life chasing after. This did surprised the girl and naruto smiled, it seem that every one who knew him had actually bought his little act.

"You are not mad?"

"No, but from now on try to use weights when training"

"W-what?"

"I don't want my team mates to be weak"

With that he vanished and sakura just gawked at the place were he had been standing, his voice had changed from understanding to cold and distant in a matter of seconds, naruto was helping her even now, giving her a tip about her training and pushing her away. This was his way of dealing with loss and making things a lot easier on her. Now how ever she had to stick to her decision and not give up on sasuke and all the while becoming a strong ninja.

Naruto re-appeared on tazuna is house looked at the roof in the house and took a deep breath; he had been doing that a lot lately, ever since the conversation he had with haku. For some reason it refused to leave his mind, it had already been four days and it was still repeating itself over and over in his mind. For a moment, he had forgotten that she was an enemy, she was unlike any one he had ever met before, she was some one like him. She could understand him if only, if only she were not an enemy then. The blond took a deep breath and shock his head, there was no point in thinking of what ifs, he knew what he had to do, she was an enemy ninja they would meet in battle and one of them was going to die.

"Shouldn't you be training?"

Turning around naruto spotted inari, tazuna is grandson looking at him with pure anger and annoyance on his face, cursing mentally for dropping his guard he just smiled at the boy.

"I'm pretty strong, don't need to train"

Inari looked at him and frowned, his dad was strong and that had not helped him he had died and for what? For nothing naruto looking at the kid saw his doubt and the glared, he was filled with despair and nothing naruto said was going to change his point of view. Therefore, it was with no surprised that the boy is answer to naruto is words came with tears and a voice filled with anger.

"Why do you guys bother to try so hard?! No matter how hard you train, you're still no match for gatou's men!! No matter what glorious claims you make or how hard you work. When facing the truly strong, the weak will only end up getting killed"

"Say what you will, I am not like you"

"I HATE TO BE ANY THING LIKE YOU! You know nothing of this country, yet you are being so nosy! What the hell do you know about me?! You don't known how hard life can be!"

"Then cry all day and do nothing, cry for ever and be a coward"

"NARUTO YOU SAID ENOUGH!!"

Naruto turned towards the door way that lead into the small room and glared at the figure of kakashi, naruto grunted and shock his head, no need to stick around and try to talk to the copy nin, he couldn't deal with another confrontation this day. Kakashi shivered when he felt naruto brush past him and shock his head, the boy was angry and he had felt the anger coming from him as he left, turning towards inari he saw the tears and took a deep breath, the kid was not frightened but angry at the fact that they would not listen to him.

"You ok?"

"Why don't you just leave?"

"We are ninja and as such we have a duty to perform, to abandon your duty is not courageous, below the courageous there is nothing. Those are the previous hokage is words, we are strong just like your father was"

Kakashi left and inari fell to the floor sobbing, these ninjas believed that his father was strong and they were willing to risk every thing to help them, they were willing to die just for a chance to save them. He shock his head and wiped the tears away from his eyes, he remembered naruto is words and took a deep breath, how long was he going to cry and be weak? For how long will he cower in fear and be haunted by the memories of his father is death? No more, he was tired of it and he was going to do something about it.

As per naruto he found an exhausted sasuke in the hallway and smirked, it seems kakashi was giving them special training, sasuke looked at naruto and quickly glanced away. There was no way he was going to allow himself to think of naruto as some one that could help him achieve his goal, closing his eyes the last uchiha forced himself to remember kakashi is warning and remember the betrayal of his brother.

"You been training, but if you did it with weights on imagine the results"

Sasuke is eyes snapped opened and turned to look at the blond, who just passed him and kept walking towards the staircases that lead to the first floor, all the while the uchiha is gaze was fixed on the boy. Kakashi had claimed that he would betray them, but here was naruto giving him pointers on his training on how to improve and now thinking about the blond is words sasuke realized that he was right, if he put weights on while climbing then he could become stronger, shaking his head he wondered why kakashi hadn't thought of it first.

Naruto hadn't even known of there training regimen and yet with out knowing he had told him how to make his work out more effective, sasuke clenched his fist and wondered why he had not thought about it, or for that matter how the hell naruto had thought of it. As far as he knew, the blond had been one of the worst students the academy had ever passed and now here he was giving him pointers on his training methods. He was an uchiha for god sake, he had graduated the top of his class and now he was getting pointers from a dead last, it couldn't be possible but something told him that naruto knew more about training and fighting than he let on.

As the day drew to a close naruto stepped out of the house and looked at the fading sun, it had been five days since they had fought zabusa, which meant that as soon as morning came both haku and zabusa were going to be at the bridge waiting for them. The chances were that they were going to the bridge earlier to prepare an ambush, which would lead to a confrontation between innocent workers; he needed to get there first and wait for them to show up.

When dawn came the two mercenaries looked at the deserted bridge and the blond standing in the middle of it, he smiled and waved at the two. He had been right the two had arrived early which meant that they were in fact preparing an ambush. When zabusa saw the blond he immediately went into alert, if the little genin was here then kakashi had to be some were near.

"Relax, they are just heading this way"

The chakra signatures were still a few minutes away, which might give him enough time to separate to take both of the two mercenaries down with out taking there lives.

"What?"

"I knew that you might pull a stunt like this, and in doing so you would have injured or killed innocent workers, so I came to prevent it"

Haku is glance was fixed on the blond boy, he was so serene and calm that was unlike any ninja that she had ever face, it was as if he was sure he would win this fight.

"So you are a fool after all"

Naruto smiled but as soon as it had appeared it vanished and his face turned serious, there were two chakra signatures on tazuna is house, which meant that they had sent some one after tazuna is family, cursing for not thinking of it earlier his gaze turned into a glare.

"So you also sent people after tazuna is family, clever"

"What are you talking about brat?"

Zabusa looked at the blond with a glare and naruto shock his head, he had no time for games, the two chakra signatures were chunin level and the only other chakra signatures that were on the house were those of inari and tazuna is daughter, kakashi had left no one behind.

"I'll be back in a bit"

With that naruto vanished and zabusa frowned, the kid was ready to start fighting and then all of a sudden he changed his mind, something big must of happened.

"Do you think gato?"

"I don't care, let's get ready for kakashi and his team"

"Yes"

When kakashi arrived he immediately saw the mist and frowned, it seem that the day had finally arrived, the mist was infused with chakra and it was much thicker than regular mist, sasuke noticed the way kakashi is hand twitched and immediately instructed sakura to stand in a defensive position guarding tazuna.

"Here they come!"

Kakashi is shout made sakura flinch, the last time they had battle the two enemy ninja kakashi had been taken out and they had to depend on naruto to save them, now with the blond having vanished all they had was a recuperated kakashi and a trained sasuke.

"Kakashi sensei this is hidden mist jutsu right?"

"Long time no see kakashi"

The disembodied voice made sakura shiver and sasuke began to tremble, within the mist zabusa just smirked and shock his head, kakashi is team was pathetic, both of the genin were trembling and the blond had run away.

"I see you're still with those brats, poor kids they are shaking"

Sasuke clenched his kunai a bit harder and smirked when zabusa is water clones appeared.

"I'm shaking from excitement"

"Do it sasuke!"

Sasuke jumped away from the defensive formation and jumped towards the clones, each one of them fell in a matter of minutes, sakura gasped in surprised and kakashi smirked. Sasuke on the other hand just resume his position and glared at the two figures that came out of the mist.

"You can't fool me"

The arrogant voice made zabusa smirk, the brat still thought he could defeat them, haku just glanced at the dark haired boy and frowned behind her mask, the boy is arrogance was annoying.

"He saw through the water clones, the brat had grown. It looks like a rival has appeared eh haku"

"Indeed it does"

**WITH NARUTO**

He arrived just in time to see the two chunins breaking trough the front door, he was about to rush towards them when something surprised him, inari is voice was coming from inside and what was most surprising was that the boy was actually threatening the two armed men. He smiled and rushed inside just in time to take both the boy and the mother up to the second floor of the house.

"Hey there"

Inari looked at the blond and took a step back; naruto placed his mother on the ground and smiled at the kid.

"So you decided to stop crying?"

Inari wiped the tears away from his eyes and nodded, he did not want to appear weak, not to this blond who had called him a coward. He straightened up and nodded.

"I-I couldn't I w-wanted to…."

"Being strong doesn't mean you have to fight"

"W-what?!"

"You just need to stand up to bullies and show them that you are not willing to back down"

The boy smiled and began to cry while naruto vanished and appeared on the first floor. The two chunins looked at the blond and smirked, this was easier than gato had said.

"So boy lets make this quick"

**(((((((((((((((((THE BRIDGE)))))))))))))))))))))**

The battle had began neither side was holding back, but they had been separated kakashi had rushed to protect sakura and had left sasuke to fend for himself. Kakashi knew that all the training he had done with sasuke had managed to raised the genin is fight level so he could at least hold on against zabusa is little helper, and even tough kakashi knew that sasuke could hold for a while he didn't know for how long. The kid was a gifted shinobi there was no doubt about that but that mystery ninja still concern kakashi a great deal.

In battle a ninja could never take things to lightly, things like unknown enemies, for example ones that ran around with killers like zabusa, those were the kinds of things that concern the copycat. Whatever the kekegenkai the kid had unleashed had trapped sasuke on some kind of cage and unless he finished the fight soon he might lose the last uchiha konoha had.

So while kakashi dealt with the assassin of the mist sasuke had been trapped in a cage made out of ice mirrors, it seem that this ninja who ever he was had a kekegenkai which allowed him to control water and manipulated it as he saw it fit. So far the masked shinobi had been in hiding deep within the mirrors jumping from one to another unleashing an occasional zenbon needle his way, sasuke knew that he was being tested and gritted his teeth in anger, there was no way that this masked kid was going to play with him.

The masked shinobi how ever was not playing with the boy but thinking long and hard about what would happened if he dealt the killing blow, this boy was in naruto is team after all and that was something that was making her hesitate. Naruto had been on her mind ever since there meeting and now in the midst of battle she could not forget the blond or there little meeting, could not help but think about the disappointment in the blond boy if she were to kill his teammate.

"Your fast I will give you that"

The genin is words barely registered with haku, she was still concern about the little genin she had meet and wondered how could some one caused her so much trouble, how could see be so shaken by some one she had just meet. She didn't know and she didn't want to know but she had to move on and focus on the battle.

"You have no idea how easy I could kill so don't speak as if you have an ace up your sleeve boy"

Her focused shifted and sasuke found himself impaled by six zenbon needles, he cursed when he felt the shift in the battle, knew that he had asked for this by taunting the masked shinobi but he had no idea that he was this good. He hadn't even seen the masked teen come out of the mirrors or were the needles had come from.

"Hah that the best you got"

Sasuke is taunts made haku frown, there was no way that she was going to let this brat keep her from aiding her master, slowly the ice mirrors began to display her figure and sasuke frowned, every single reflection of haku held a zenbon needle in hand. There were too many of them and the masked shinobi was to fast, sasuke knew that there was no way he was going to be able to dodge all of the attacks especially if they all came at once.

"I am sorry naruto"

Haku whispered and unleashed her attack on the only uchiha survivor, sasuke cursed but that was all he could do; the needles all connected and he fell to the ground haku closed her eyes and stepped out of the mirror. She had not killed the boy just hit every single one of his pressure points to render him in a death state.

"Thank you"

She opened her eyes and saw a blond boy smiling at her.

Haku is body froze, naruto appeared inside the ice cage and looked at the uchiha survivor knocked out a small smile played on his lips, and it seem that haku had had enough of sasuke. He turned towards haku and smiled once more, this time how ever his blue eyes looked at the mirrors and at haku; she however turned away from him, she could not stare into the eyes of the blond she couldn't afford too, the blond reminded her so much of herself and of that brief conversation they shared. Naruto saw her avoiding his gaze and shock his head, this was going to be more difficult than he had originally planed but it had to be done.

"Haku please I don't want to fight you!"

"Nor I you"

"Then why deam it!?

"Because I am a weapon, nothing else matters. Only my master is wishes matter"

Both ninja stared at one another neither wanting to make a move until haku is right hand twitched, naruto cursed and closed his eyes.

"Please don't …I don't want to fight you"

"But we must"

"Please no"

His pleading voice made her hurt, it hurt to hear such despair in his voice but she had to finish her job zabusa was depending on her to end this soon and go aid him. Turning towards naruto, she raised a zenbon needle to eye level and naruto frowned, he knew that she had made a choice.

"I am sorry"

In her hand appeared four zenbon needles and just as soon as they had appeared, she threw them at naruto.

"Haku…."

Was the only thing the blond whispered, right before his left hand moved and snatched all four zenbon needles from the air, those shots were meant to incapacitate him and leave him just like sasuke but he couldn't allow him self to be defeated, if he did then kakashi was as good as dead. Haku might not want to kill them but zabusa had no such reservations, he had to win this and if possible save every one from dying.

"No, I am not going to give up, no one will die"

Haku stared in surprised at the blond, he had managed to snatch all four needles in mid flight, he was fast perhaps faster than she.

"(H-how did he…..who are you naruto)"

"Fight me!"

Haku jumped into an ice mirror right before it shattered under a punch from naruto, the girl had barely been able to jump to another ice mirror before the one she had been on had shattered which was impossible. Her ice mirrors were supposed to resist any kind of attack from jutsu or any other forms of attack and yet this boy had managed to destroy one of them with his just one punch.

"(I have to strike now while he is still in mid attack)"

She came out of the mirror that stood next to the one naruto had shattered and threw four more needles towards the blond.

"Teleport"

Naruto whispered and vanished again.

"(To fast, I couldn't follow his movement) you are faster than I"

She spoke when naruto reappeared behind her.

"Give up, please"

"But far weaker than I"

She could feel the kunai knife pressing on her lower back, yet naruto refused to strike the killing blow.

"You don't want to kill me in this fight, but unlike you I will kill you"

"Then why haven't you"

Haku took a deep breath and closed her eyes; she had made a clone and used it so that I would come up from behinds naruto, so now a clone was behind naruto in one of her ice mirrors holding a zenbon needle in its hands ready to strike, only she could not give the order.

"If I strike you, you will vanished and I would receive the blow"

She was lying.

"You could easily avoid it"

"I am unsure I want to…."

Naruto is kunai dropped from his hand. He couldn't do this, he was not the kind of person to take a life not especially when that life belonged to some one like haku, the girl had managed to wrap herself around his mind and despite what he tried to do, he couldn't shake her off. She reminded him so much of himself and yet she seem to known something he didn't, seem to have and understanding far beyond his own.

"I can't kill you, but I will stop you"

With that said, he spun around and punched the mirror that was behind him, it shattered along side with the haku clone, turning around once more he frowned when he didn't saw haku; she was no longer in front of him. She had disappeared and entered another of her mirrors. Naruto tried to follow her but her chakra was all over the place, not only that but when she vanished she didn't leave any trail behind, her teleportation was as good as his, only she had to depend on her mirrors.

"You are strong naruto"

"Deam it haku stop this!"

She wouldn't listen, so instead he avoided a zenbon needle and cursed, haku wouldn't listen and the way she was jumping from mirror to mirror told him that this fight would only end if one of them couldn't continue. The zenbon needles are thrown again this time however naruto can see each one of them heading his way, then before haku blinks the blond begins to move and every single needle is caught by his hand, he moves faster than the eye can see and she begins to worry.

"You were hiding your true power all along, how many mask do you wear naruto-kun?"

He can hear the sympathy, haku simply stares down at the boy and wonders just how much of himself she is truly seeing, how many mask and hidden emotions are keep under lock and key just because he is afraid to show who he really is. She was once afraid just as he was but that was until zabusa had arrived and taken all the pain away, had removed her mask, showed her that it was okay to be herself to not fear what she was, if she revealed herself she would not be hurt.

Throwing another set of needles she wonders what the boy is really like, did he eat from the garbage just as she had? Was he always alone just like her? So many question that she wanted to ask and knew that she could not, this was her enemy. Naruto was trying to stop her from achieving her goal, she couldn't let that happened couldn't betray the one man who had showed her who she truly was.

"Deam it"

He had been hit, naruto looked at his shoulder and frowned at the torn fabric of his jump suit, a needle had gone trough.

"I am sorry, but I can't allow this battle to go on any longer"

She knew she couldn't because the longer she stayed battling the blond the weaker she would grown, she knew that her resolve to kill him was not strong enough, that if she stayed in the battle any longer she would not be able to deal the killing blow. Even now when she had hurt him, she had flinched at the sight of his blood, at the fact that she had hurt him.

"Genjutsu"

She was clever all right, she had used an illusion technique to double the amount of needles heading his way, but more than that, she had used the ice mirrors to her advantage and reflected the actual number of needles that were heading his way. There was no telling which set of needles was the real one, which could be a problem especially if they all came at him at once, his eyes could follow them but to know which ones were real that was the hard task.

He smiled and realized that maybe he should have taken up that little training session with kurenai; she was rumored to be the best genjutsu specialist in all of konoha. Haku saw the small smile and frowned; what ever this kid was, planning it had to be good or else he wouldn't be so confident.

"Why are you smiling? Did you find a way to counter my attack?"

"No, I'm not good at detecting illusions so I guess I'm stuck"

"Stuck?"

How could that be? Was he not the sharingan user is student? How could he not know how to defend against an illusion attack, it just didn't make any sense the boy should know at least basic defenses against illusion based attack. Yet if his life was anything like hers it shouldn't of surprised her that the copycat had neglected the boys training.

"Don't worry I wont let you beat me"

He smiled up at her and she wondered if he knew the weight of his words, he was so calm and serene as if knowing how every thing would play out and that every thing would be all right.

"You speak as if you have already won the battle"

"I have"

"You can….t?"

Landing in the middle of the mirror cage he began to avoid needle after needle the more haku threw the more he avoided dodge or simply knocked back with his kunai knife, she double the amount of zenbon needles and frowned when they all failed to make a direct hit or were blocked.

"(How the hell did…he…?)"

"No more needles?"

Naruto opened one of his eyes and looked at haku; she was looking straight at him trying to figure out how he had been able to avoid every single one of her needles.

"You closed your eyes"

Naruto smiled and nodded, it was dangerous to close his eyes when he was fighting a ninja seeing as how he couldn't see what there hands were doings, but it was the only way to detect and avoid the real needles. Any slight change in air current told him what he needed to do that way he didn't relied so much on his eyes. Hakus for the most part just frowned and shock her head, the blond was full of surprises, he had made her zenbon attack useless.

"Yes I did so I don't care if there are a million needles I will avoid them all"

"No need I can see that your are far more reliable and stronger than I first believed, so I will no longer hold back (this will consume most of my chakra but hopefully it will finish this…..i am sorry naruto)"

Naruto frowned when he saw her hands move, a hand sing.

"W-what are?"

The mirrors began to shatter and naruto frowned, when he saw that haku was no were in sight, she had apparently left the safety of her mirrors and was now using the mist as a sort of camouflage, her chakra was still undetectable thanks to the technique she was using.

"Hidden mist stile. Shards of ice jutsu"

The million ice shards her broken mirrors had created began to circle him, all of them began to break down into smaller pieces until nothing but small razor sharp blades were all around him.

"What the hell?!"

"This is one of my deadliest attacks, every single piece of glass will attack you at the same time…..you will not survive this"

"We will see"

Haku frowned and wondered if the blond was nothing but a overconfident fool or of he actually believed he could survive this kind of attack, closing her eyes she cleared her mind and allowed the jutsu to take over, in a second every single piece of ice was had rushed towards the blond genin.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH"

The scream surprised her; it was not one of pain but of determination.

"I won't lose!"

Naruto is voice rang out and when haku opened her eyes he was surrounded by a clear blue shield composed entirely of chakra, his hair was shining an even brighter shade of yellow it almost seem to be turning into a gold color, but what was most surprising was the fact that every single piece of ice had been blocked. Naruto took a deep breath and shock his head, making the chakra shield was more exhausting than he remembered but that was the only way he could block all of haku is ice shards, the small pieces were almost impossible to see or feel; if he had tried to dodged them he would be dead by now.

"H-how is this possible?"

"Phase one of my defense chakra shield. I gathered all of my chakra and unleashed it around myself to block any incoming attack….unfortunately I can't sustain it for very long"

"Then the battle is over"

"For you"

The chakra shield was nothing more than him expelling chakra and then trying to gather it back up, this caused the chakra to remain near him and shield him from other attacks that had chakra on them. One of the drawbacks was that if haku were to throw a zenbon needle or any kind of non-chakra based attacks it would pass right trough his shield as if it was nothing, the other one was that it wasted a lot of his energy and he could not contain it for very long.

"W-what?"

Naruto released the hold he had on the shield and it immediately turned into a chakra wave that repelled all of haku is shards as well as the mist zabusa had gathered.

"Phase two of my defense, when ever I dispel the shield it turns into a massive chakra wave that repels all chakra base attacks"

That was a good defense but just as she was about to respond she felt it, a spike of chakra and then a feeling that overwhelmed her senses. Naruto looked at her and saw the change in character, she had faltered just as she was about to move or reply to his statement she had stopped and just looked around as if trying to find something. That is when they both heard it, when they both saw it, the mist had begun to fade and birds began to chirp at once.

"Zabusa needs me"

"Haku!"

She vanished and naruto cursed, she had to aid her master and in the process would place her life in danger, closing his eyes he cursed when he felt it, kakashi is chakra was flaring and zabusa is chakra was beginning to fade, he had lost and kakashi was going to end his life. Following the chakra signatures he could feel what haku was going to do, she was moving in an intercept course, she was going to jump in front of the attack. By doing so she would be saving her master but would most likely kill herself, he couldn't allow that; she would not die on this day and if that meant protecting her master then so be it, she would not die. So he had acted and while haku had move in front of zabusa and right in the middle of kakashi is attack naruto had moved in front of her.

The raikiri had never connected, kakashi had not dealt the deathblow to the assassin of the mist, he had rushed towards zabusa and had made to strike the assassin but something had stopped him, or more likely, his attack had hit something and in the process had exploded blowing him back wards. Naruto had jumped in the middle and with one hand had stooped kakashi is lighting blade and sent the copycat kakashi staggering backwards with his attack dissipating. The sharingan user stared wide eyed at his own student and clenched his teeth in anger, but the blond didn't seem to noticed him at all, he didn't seem to even pay attention to him all he did was stare at the masked shinobi that stood a few feet from zabusa.

The two seem to be lost in a world of there own, they paid no attention to there surroundings no heed to the dangers of the battlefield; all they did was fight a silent battle amongst themselves. Kakashi could see the turmoil in naruto is eyes and the silent desperation hidden behind an all too familiar mask; both of them were making a choice, deciding if they should follow the path, they had known all there lives or listen to what there hearts were telling them.

"N-naruto"

The moment she poke those words naruto felt the change around him, sensed the movement from behind haku and knew what was going to happened, with out thinking he moved faster than he had ever done so, for if he failed to act she would die. Zabusa from behind moved his sword ready to strike, he heard the tremble in his weapons is voice and knew that she had been broken, she had been broken by the blond genin from the leaf.

"MOVE!"

Naruto is words had stunned her for just a second before his hands had roughly pushed her to the ground, then it happened, every thing slowed down and she saw her master is sword pierce the blond is chest, zabusa is eyes widen with surprised. Haku had been only inches from his sword and yet the blond boy had moved faster than any human should. Half a second, that was all it would take for his sword to pierce haku is back and yet the genin had managed to save her.

The blood began to spill and zabusa glared at the blue eye boy, he had ruined every thing, he had made his weapon useless and now he was stopping him from disposing of it, he pushed the sword even deeper and naruto grunted in pain. Zabusa stared at him saw the smile on the genin's face and wondered why the boy was smiling when it was clear that he would die this day.

"Why?"

Zabusa stared at the boy and naruto smiled.

"You would never understand"

Naruto spoke and zabusa froze, how the hell could he be smiling at a time like this, how could he speak such nonsense, anger took control of the demon of the mist and he pushed the sword deeper inside of naruto.

"Fool"

Zabusa swung his sword, the body of naruto was thrown a couple of feet away from his and all they heard was a sickening thud and a swish of blood, zabusa turned to his weapon and glared at the girl. Her mask had come off and what he saw in her eyes was nothing but hate.

"Y-you…"

"Remember your place!"

Haku seem to snap out of her anger but all she could see was naruto is body impaled in her master is sword, glancing to were the blond had landed she saw his orange jump suit soaked in his blood and a small crimson pool began to gathered around him. kakashi just stared at the body of his student and shock his head, naruto had jumped in front of him and had saved the life of that mist ninja but why? Why did he risk his life to save an enemy?! It didn't make sense.

"N-naruto…."

Haku is voice snapped every one out of her there daze, slowly she walked towards him and knelt by his side all the while zabusa just glared at her slowly he to began to walk towards the two, he had lost his weapon so now it was time to dispose of it slowly he raised his sword.

"You are broken haku"

**xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx( THE DEMON )xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

"W-were am 1"

The blond looked at his chest and frowned, the wound zabusa had inflicted on him had vanished but what was most surprising was the fact that he was no longer on the bridge, he was on some kind of sewer. Standing up he frowns when he sees the big cage before his eyes, the golden gates stared down at him as if telling him that he is nothing with out them, mocking him with there power.

"You are with me boy"

The voice from within startles him but he frowns when he sees the sing on the middle of the golden doors, a seal a seal for a demon.

"So that is your home"

"Impressive that you do not fear me"

From the shadows, two massive red eyes emerge and glance down at the blond.

"You're trapped so why would I fear you?"

"Not as stupid as I first thought, so why don't we get down to why you are here"

Naruto raised an eyebrow and saw the red energy coming from the bottom of the steel doors; he jumped away and frowned at the fox. There was no way he was going to let the fox is chakra mix with him, not when he knew all to well the consequences.

"Sorry not going to happen!"

"As powerful as you are you lack my abilities boy"

"Even you can't heal the wound I receive"

"You doubt me even now? Foolish child my powers can do more than heal your pathetic little body"

"No deal fox"

"Then the ice maiden dies along side you"

Haku. Naruto frowned and glared at the fox, the demon smirked and noticed the change in attitude the blond had had.

"What are you talking about!?"

"Even now as we speak that man called zabusa is ready to strike your friend"

"……………"

"You can sense it cant you, the way his chakra is flaring and hers is fading"

"Deam it…deam it all"

"Ready brat?"

"Once this is over you and I will have a talk about who is the strongest"

"That we will"

TO BE CONTINUED……………………………………………………………….

Small little notes:

Deathrunner : I cant really compare the power levels, the z-fighters can destroy a whole planet while a shinobi dies if he uses to much chakra so I never compared the two.

The haku naruto fight, I made a small sequence you can view at H.O.A…..House of archangemon, it covers the first round of the fight. If it gets to confusing then go check out the drawings and it might give you an idea of what I was trying to do.


	7. Chapter 7

TEACHER

**TEACHER**

Naruto smiled at the group of people that were surrounding, sure some of them were a bit weird but they all treated him with some degree of respect, even the so call prince of all sayains treated him ok for the most part, every thing was perfect in this world, no one was trying to kill him, no angry stares and no mistreatments from any one. This world was perfect and yet it was not his own world, but the question he has asked goku was a valid one and he hoped that he would honor his request, he hoped that he would say yes.

"Naruto"

Goku looked at him and smiled faintly at the young warrior beside him, the smile how ever was not the one that naruto was expecting and he knew what his decision was.

"They said no right?"

"Yeah, even I can't change there minds"

"B-but why?"

"It seems you have you own destiny to fulfill in your own world"

Naruto closed his eyes and shock his head, that couldn't be, there was nothing waiting for him in his world, nothing but hate, nothing but people who wanted nothing more but to see him dead, goku placed a hand on the boy is shoulder and smiled.

"B-but why?! I don't want to go back!"

"I am the guardian of this realm, but I am not a god naruto"

"You're stronger than those gods!"

The frown naruto saw on goku made him take a step back, he was annoyed at his words.

"Strength is not every thing naruto"

The blond is eyes widen and goku smiled, the kid still had a lot to learn but hopefully he could learn with them teaching him, every child needs to have some one care for them if they don't then how else are they to learn what its like to care for some one else.

"T-then I can't stay….."

"No, you are still alive we are not, you belong on your realm naruto"

"W-why? No body wants me there, they all hate me"

"So you will give up so easily? Don't let them win"

"L-let them win?"

"If you give up now, if you leave then you will let them win, they would have driven you away from the village and what would you become then?"

The villagers hated him; they all saw him as a worthless piece of garbage, as nothing more than trash to be disposed off. they screamed at him to leave the village to die, if he gave up, if he ran away if he stayed here then the villagers would win, they would get there wish and see that he became nothing but a worthless being. Closing his eyes and clenching his fist naruto made a choice; he would not run away.

"I-I will become hokage!"

**TEACHER**

**VII**

"**HELL"**

Demon, the title was given to those who were as evil as they were skilled in the killing arts; zabusa momochi was given such title and until this day he wore the title with pride and honor that is until he met a real live demon. Terror filled every single part of his body and as much as his body wanted to move he couldn't, fear had a grip on him and it refused to let him move. All his senses all of his basic instincts were shouting at him to run to hide to stay still, all senses were screaming at him and yet all he could do was watch as the genin held his blade and glared at him. His sword had been swung down towards haku and naruto, his plan was to slash at both of them, to kill the genin and his useless weapon.

"N-naruto…..?"

She couldn't believe what she was seeing, naruto had stopped her master is attack in mid strike, his bare hand was clenching the swords that had killed hundred of ninja all over the ninja nations, and yet now it was just being held there was if it was nothing but a piece of tin. Zabusa is eyes were wide with surprised and she could almost swear that she could see some fear beginning to surface, haku is eyes looked away from zabusa and turned to the person that was hugging her body. naruto is blue eyes were now red and had turned to a cat like form, his canine teeth were now fangs and his hands were claws, yet despite all this she found him the least bit threatening.

"W-why?"

She spoke and he just smiled at her, how could she ask why? Did she not known?

"I found you, I found my precious person"

He roared out pushing zabusa away and before haku knew it she was in his arms a few feet away from zabusa and the rest of the ninjas, naruto smiled at her and let her stand on her own. She glanced back at the two jounin and saw them gaping at the blond boy beside her, she turned towards naruto and just stared at him, there were so many questions that needed to be asked but only one came to mind.

"W-what did you?"

She couldn't believe that this was happening the blond boy is dramatic change seem more frightening when he was standing up, he was different, every thing had changed, his hands were claws, his eyes had changed from a clear shade of blue to a blood dark red, his canines had elongated making them seem like fangs. He turned to her when she asked the question and despite that terrible feeling that red aura was giving her she couldn't help but remain by his side, he was an outcast just like her, but unlike her he had never had any one.

"I won't let any one hurt you"

He rushed towards zabusa and haku could only blink in surprised, the situation didn't make any sense, how could she be some one is precious person? How could she be to naruto what zabusa was to her? How could.

"So you couldn't handle a bunch of kids eh, demon of the mist?"

The voice snapped every one out of there daze, turning towards the source of the voice they found a short little man surrounded by a mob of ninja, Zabusa couldn't believe what he was seeing, the stupid little man had gone behind his back and tried to double cross him, glancing towards haku he could see her eyes staring back at him as if telling him that she had been right all along. Kakashi looked at his other genin and frowned when he saw sasuke on the ground and sakura just shivering beside him, there was no way he was going to be able to fend off this many ninja, both he and zabusa were depleted. They had spent too much chakra battling one another, one look at the boy/girl and he could see that she/he to was spent. Yet looking at naruto he could see that the boy is glare had only intensified as well as the amount of power he was emanating, what ever had triggered his transformation had left him with some semblance of humanity.

"You will all die"

The words naruto spoke made every one is body tremble, the voice was not human, the red aura surrounding the boy was filled with evil, such evil that it felt as if it was squeezing the very life out of all the ninja accompanying gato. The short man fell to his knees and glared at the blond gening; whatever the hell the boy was doing, it was frightening the hell out of him and his men. It was as if he was staring at hell itself and it was threatening to consume his very soul if he didn't look away.

"S-stop him!"

He stammered out and the ninja complied, they rushed towards there target, hand signs flashing and jutsus being cast.

"WATER STYLE WATER SHURIKEN JUTSU!"

"SUMMONING JUTSU GOLUM REVIVAL!"

Kakashi frowned and took a step back, it was one thing for the man to be surrounded by thugs and petty criminals its was a whole other thing to be accompanied by jounin and chunnin, ninja that were not only skilled but were well beyond regular jounin or chunning, they were at least B-class. Rushing towards sasuke, he lifts him up from the ground and rushes towards sakura and tazuna, the battle that is about to begin is one that he cannot be a part off; his fight with zabusa has left him with almost no chakra. Glancing at zabusa he could see the anger and the inability to do any thing, his arms were almost useless and he was in the same predicament as he was, no chakra and way out of his league. No jounin no matter how strong could take on an entire army of ninjas and live to tell the tale not unless it was a certain blond jounin.

"Zabusa we have to get out of here!"

The demon of the mist just nodded and they both rushed away from the scene, there wasn't any thing they could do in this fight, zabusa looked at haku and frown when he saw her standing there, she was not moving or even making an attempt at running away, a brief glance between them was all that they needed, zabusa understood why she would stay and in return he had given her, her freedom. She would no longer have to be his weapon but she would no longer be welcomed by his side she was on her own.

Sakura Haruno looked at the scene before her and tried not to vomit. Her whole body was shaking and despite wanting to do something she could not, she was paralyzed with fear, something had happened something had gone wrong and as much as she wanted to be able to think about it she couldn't, all her body wanted to do was flee, to run for its life and never look back. Taking deep breaths she tries to steady herself, to not let that overwhelming sense of panic take over her and yet she couldn't, all she could do was stay rooted to the ground and shake in fear.

Looking around the area now that the mist had cleared she could see a mob of people in the bridge and something red and horrible glowing, beside it stood the masked girl who had fought them. She glanced around the area and saw her sensei rushing towards her with sasuke is body draped over his left shoulder, she was about to say something when his right hand sneaked around her waist and she was lifted up onto his right shoulder.

"Tazuna time to go"

The man couldn't even ask a question when he felt himself being dragged along side the silver haired ninja by the back of his shirt, there was no questions ask as they were moving far to fast for any of them to comprehend what had happened or what was going on.

"Demonic art, soul draining jutsu!"

Naruto is voice became as cold as ice and his whispered words sent chills down every one is spines, the red chakra that flared around him seem to become alive and lash out at the mob of ninjas who were gathered beside gato. The chakra coils began to wrap around the bodies of the jounin and chunnin gathered as soon as they wrapped themselves around a living being it began to drain there life essence, killing them off instantly and leaving only a pile of ash behind. When they realized what was happening they all jumped away from the area and tried to strike back at the blond genin, the water shuriken rushed towards him but as soon as they got within a few feet of him they immediately shattered into nothing but small droplets of water, as for the massive rock monster that seem to come out of no were it rushed towards the blond.

The rock monster threw a punch towards the blond, only to be evaded by naruto jumping upwards into the air, when he began to fall naruto extended his right leg and managed to connect with the beast is head, the impact forced the massive creature to stagger back a few feet. Landing the blond immediately rushed towards the golem for a second attack, his left arm raised above him he unleashed a punch towards the rock giant, the beast seeing the incoming attack raised his arm in defense; naruto is punch connected and much to the surprised of every one the golem is arm shattered under the force of the punch.

"T-that's impossible! My golem is powers c-cant be matched"

The rock jounin took a step back and shock his head, this couldn't be happening, that blond kid, he was much too young to be anything else but a genin, but his power, there was something to it, something evil and frightening at the same time. Looking at his forehead protector he could see the leaf insignia in it and frowned even further, he was from the village hidden in the leaf; that place had the fame of producing super strong ninja. It was rumored that they once had a 13 year old anbu captain and had created the legendary sannin.

"Is that all?"

The blond growled out right before the golem puffed out in a cloud of smoke, the genin jumped towards the mob and landed right in the middle of it there he was surrounded by every one and yet no one took a step towards him.

"If you step close and get touched by that red aura we will die so keep away from him! Long range attacks only!"

One of the most experience jounin called out, but it was no use, naruto moved with god like speed towards the mob, his claws slashing at the nearest ninja it could find, his aura slashing at all around him wrapping itself to whom ever dare get close enough to him, soon nothing remained but a pile of corpses on the ground. Gato looked at the boy and took a step back, he was not a human, no human could do what he had just done.

"W-what the hell are you?"

"Nothing that concerns a dead man"

"W-WHAT?….Y-you can't…. I'll give you any thing you want b-but don't kill me!"

"Any thing?"

"Y-YES A-any thing!"

_NARUTO IS MIND_

The blond looked at the fox is cage and frowned, this was not part of the deal, he could feel his body staggering just to stand, his chest wound had been healed externally but internally it still had needed to be tended too, the demon is little knowledge on human anatomy made him work at a slow rate less he reform a malfunctioning organ. The fox on the other hand was having a field day, it had been a long time since he had been allowed to let some of his powers out, it was a relieve to be able to do so ever since he had been imprisoned in the human he felt like he was being suffocated. All of his powers contained behind a little cage it was enough to drive him mad, that is why he let out small portions of it out once in a while and as a side effect it screwed the kid is chakra control.

"What are you doing?"

"I am toying with him"

"Finish him off"

"You want me to kill?"

"If we don't then he will just want revenge, we can't let him live"

"Then he will suffer"

"No, just finish him off"

"You speak as if you have a choice boy"

"I said enough!"

Naruto turned towards the cage and glared at the huge door, the demon inside just smiled and looked at the boy before him, he turned away from him and unleashed more chakra, only this time he was stopped.

"What are you doing?!"

"I said enough!"

Naruto is chakra flared up and the demon cringed back in his cage, the kid was glowing, his blue chakra was pushing back his own red one, the demon unleashed more power but it was meet on equal grounds by the blond kid is own chakra, what was more surprising was that it was actually pushing his powers back. The demon growled out and pushed more chakra out of his cage but the seal activated and he was send crashing backwards slamming against the back of the cage.

"Damn you and your forth hokage! If I were free you would be dead by now!"

"So you say but this is my body and I won't let you use it as you please!"

_REAL WORLD_

The demon had growled out and passed out, the huge blow he had received had drained him out and had knocked him unconscious, naruto fell to one knee and gasped, that had been to close, the demon had nearly taken over and his will had nearly over written his own emotions. Luckily he had managed to snap out of his little daze with enough time to stop the demon and now glancing at gato he smirked at the hopeful look the man had, he was actually expecting to get out of this alive. Standing back up he took a deep breath and slashed the man is throat with a kunai.

"I want you to die"

The short little fat man just gurgled blood and fell towards the ocean below, naruto smirked and was about to fall to the ground when a pair of arms came from behind him and held him close, looking at the person he smiled at her.

"T-thank you"

"Y-your wound"

She couldn't believe what she was seeing, the gaping hole that was once in his chest was all but gone, it was replaced by new skin it was as if the damage had never happened yet something was wrong with naruto, he seem to be gasping for air and was trembling as if his whole body was entering into shock or something. Placing him on the ground she could see that his condition was a lot worse than she had originally thought, even though he was no longer injured something had happened to his body.

"I-I heal p-pretty fast but……m-my body suffers a great deal of strain"

"From the regeneration…I see"

"Y-yeah…it takes a lot out of me"

Haku could see that he was not only in a weakened state but he was also in physical pain, there was so many regenerated parts that it had placed his whole body in agony, multiplying cells that fast had to be hard to do and who knew what the consequences were. Luckily his healing powers seem to be mainly focused on rebuilding vital organs and regulating vital body functions, hence why naruto was able to live with a gaping whole in his chest, what worried her was the weakened condition and the way his sensei had acted when he had snapped.

"We should leave the area, I don't know what you want to do but the sharingan user didn't seem to please when you changed"

Naruto cursed, he knew what kakashi was like, if he suspected or even had an inkling that he had given up some of his control to the fox then he was in danger, there was no telling what the copy cat would do. He needed to figure out his next move but he couldn't go back to the city not knowing what was going on, besides the mission was over he had killed gato and all of his men that would guarantee the city is safety and allow tazuna to finish his bridge, there was nothing more to do. As for haku the girl hoped that he didn't want to go back to that sensei of his, she had recognizes kakashi is gaze it was the same one she had gotten when the people had found out about her kekegenkai, what ever the copy cat is intentions would be from now on he could not be trusted.

"N-naruto!"

Both ninja turned towards the sound of the voice and saw a crowd of people looking at them with shock and amazement, in front of the crowd stood a very familiar little boy smiling at them, he was wearing some kind of armor and had a cross vow on his hands. Naruto recognized him and smiled back, he waved at him and the kid rushed towards him.

"Inari, what are you doing here?"

Haku could see the kid had no fear of him or naruto, his eyes were just focused on the dead body of gato; a small little smile played on the kid is lips, it was as if he was trying to hold back his laughter, his eyes turned towards naruto and gave him a thumps up.

"You did it! Just like you said, I-I wanted to help so I"

Naruto smiled and nodded he understood what inari was trying to tell him, it seem that the kid is bravery had inspired the other villagers to rise up and face the tyrant, this village had learned to stand together and fight.

"Your are very brave inari, all of your will make this land a great one"

Haku helped naruto stand and the villagers could see the condition of the blond, they immediately wanted to aid the blond kid but he smiled and told them it was ok, something in his voice how ever told inari that this was a good bye.

"N-naruto?"

"My mission is finished here inari"

"B-but why? Were are you going?"

He didn't know the answer to that question but he knew that he could no longer return to konoha, kakashi was a jounin a loyal one to the village and as such he would be force to report what had happened on the bridge, when that happened he didn't want to even think of what the others would think. The hokage had enough trouble as it was he didn't want to become another burden to the old man, not with how the village elders and the council were always after him, if they found out about this then they would have the perfect excuse to act against him and possibly take his life or lock him up for life.

He had no other choice but to leave right now, he couldn't possibly go back not with kakashi any way; he needed to talk to the old man and see what he had to say about all of this. If any one could come up with something it would be sarutobi, the man was the only one who had ever treated him normal. When he was little he had been around every single kind of ninja, from genin to jounin and even some anbu and they all had the same thing in common, they all were frightened of him, every one always had there guards up around him almost as if expecting him to go berserk and kill them all. The hokage had been different; he had never once been like that.

"I need to report something to my village first; I need to ask you guys for a favor"

Inari and the villagers nodded, what ever this kid would ask they would gladly give it to him, he had killed the man who had turned there lives to hell, looking around they wondered were the rest of the kid is team was, they were supposed to be here also weren't they?

"Any thing"

"My team, I need you guys to delay them and not tell them that you saw me, just tell them that I wasn't here when you showed up"

Inari looked at naruto and the girl beside him, something was wrong it was as if he was hiding something but what ever it was he had to have his reasons, the crow gathered around just nodded and inari smiled at him.

"Of course, but why?"

"I used a forbidden jutsu to finish off gato and his men, if kakashi reports it"

"It's all right kid"

The villages smiled at him and naruto was taken back by the look they were given him, it was not a questioning look or a look of surprised it was one filled with understanding and gratitude, it was the look he had longed to see in the faces of the villagers in konoha. He had earned there respect, they looked at him with nothing but respect and pride, they were proud of him, haku saw the tear in naruto is eyes and wondered just how much he had endured in his life.

"We will do what you ask no problem, right?!"

The man questioned out loud and the crowd responded in a resounding shout that they would, inari just smiled and said good bye to naruto promising that he would become stronger. Naruto smiled and vanished along side haku, they needed to get out of here before either zabusa or kakashi returned, heading into the forest naruto couldn't help but wonder what the name of the bridge would be or what tazuna would say when he found out that he was gone.

"Are you alright naruto?"

"I will be, I just need"

He didn't get to finish exhaustion took over and he collapsed on haku is arms, the girl smiled and placed naruto over her shoulder she knew that she needed to leave the area before kakashi or zabusa returned if they came back then they could sense her chakra and go after her and naruto. The way naruto had acted seem to tell her that he didn't not want his sensei to find him, the way kakashi had looked at naruto also told her to not let that man near the blond; kakashi had glanced at naruto with fear and border line anger, the last time some one had glanced at her that way a beating had soon followed. Then there was the way that the blond had acted during battle, his whole attitude had changed it was as if he was some kind of wild animal set lose, it was frightening and intriguing at the same time. She had heard of the Inuzuka clan from konoha and there feral looks but she was sure that naruto was not one of them.

Then there was his whole healing factor, no ordinary human could survive a blow like the one he had taken, she wondered if his village had experimented on him or if he was the result of one of the renegade sannin is experiment, after all there were rumors that he was in the habit of experiment on ninjas. Shaking her head she heads off into the woods and wonders what naruto would do once he wakes up, she is not used to making decision on her own she had always been a followers so the best she could do was hide out while naruto regained consciousness.

Far away from the bridge kakashi looked on at his students and frowned, they had been useless in the battle, his training had not paid off as well as he had hoped and had nearly gotten them all killed, even himself had been some what out matched in the bridge, truth of the matter was that he had let himself go, a couple of years back he could have easily taken on zabusa momochi with out so much as a case of chakra exhaustion. Now how ever that had all changed, even if zabusa was a great opponent the way he had collapsed after the battle showed that he had let himself become weak, he was sure that if it had not been for his sharingan he would be dead by now. Looking at zabusa he could see that despite the man is injures he could still go another round with him and he could barely stand.

"How are you feeling?"

Sasuke grunted and sat up, he had been knocked out by that mask ninja and it seem that the battle had been over for a while now; looking at his sensei he could see the frown on his face and the disappointing coming from his eyes.

"Fine"

"You should thank haku for that"

Zabusa smirked at the boy is scowl and looked at kakashi, the copy cat was deep in thought and he knew that something had spooked him, what ever the hell that kid had done had scared the living day light out of the sharingan user. That blond kid was no ordinary ninja or human for that matter, the kid had been impaled by his sword and had just continued to fight as if his wound was nothing. Then the wound had began to heal right before his eyes, that kid what ever he was, was not an ordinary human being, konoha had its share of secrets and something told him that the kid was one of them, and if the way Kakashi had been acting was any indication he was dangerous.

The blond boy had been terrifying, even he had felt fear when the red chakra had began to leak out of the boy, it was as if his whole body wanted to just run away, forget killer intent what ever that kid had unleashed it had been a hundred times more sinister and evil. Any normal human would have gone insane lucky for them they were ninja and were used to things like that but even so, that did not mean that they were UN affected by it. He glanced at the sharingan user who nodded, it was time for them to have a serious talk; he signaled him to follow him outside of the small shed they were hiding, the man complied and soon the two stood outside.

"So? What happened back there kakashi?"

"You call yourself the demon of the mist, well what you saw back there was a true demon"

"So a human sacrifice, I didn't know konoha practice that forbidden art"

Kakashi frowned, he knew that other villages practiced the art of sealing demons inside humans and then turning them into weapons, other villagers were known to have there little demons running around, but no one knew for sure they were just rumors, rumors that every one took seriously and had there eyes peeled just in case they turned out to be real.

"We do not, he was an accident"

"Fair enough, but which demon is it?"

"You know enough already, don't make me kill you"

Zabusa smirked and looked at his arms, they were still useless and would probably be like that for some time, but despite that he knew that kakashi was far worse than him his chakra levels were low almost depleted if the two were to fight right now it would be on equal grounds. That how ever was not an option kakashi still had used of his hands and that would give him an advantage so he decided to leave it at that and leave, after all with gato betraying him and haku leaving him he had no reason to stay here.

"He, I guess I will take my leave"

"Next time we meet"

"If there is a next time kakashi, if there is a next time"

Shabusa smirked and banished right before the sharingan user is eyes, kakashi looked back at the room and wondered what his next move was, sasuke had no idea what had happened but by now sakura would have already informed him of what had happened so there was no point in trying to hide any thing from the last uchiha. Then there was naruto and what had happened at the bridge, how he had used the demon is powers and despite being able to control it there was a definite danger in him being able to wield such power, it would be to much to hope that he could just summon it and be able to master it as if it were any other technique but that kind of power was far to dangerous to use or to be wielded by any one. He knew that he only had one option in dealing with what had happened; unfortunately he didn't known what it would mean for his student.

The hokage would try to protect him but the council would not have any of that, Sarutobi had only managed to protect naruto because there were no outwards sings of the demon is influence on the boy, the only thing that showed were whiskers marks and that was about it; other than that he was just a normal weak kid. Now how ever that kid had channeled the power of the nine tailed demon and the things he had witness in that bridge, they had to be reported he couldn't place the village in danger not when the seal had given away even if it were just for a couple of minutes.

"Kakashi sensei is every thing all right?"

The man shock his head and walked back inside into the shed, sakura looked at the man as he walked towards the far off corner of the shed, something was not right but she knew that this was not the time to question it, taking a deep breath she looked up at the night sky and closed his eyes.

"Naruto"

She whispered and wondered what had happened to the blond, sure he always annoyed the heck out of her but he was her friend and team mate, she had a right to be concern.

**(((((((((((((((HAKU & NARUTO)))))))))))))))**

The girl had already set up a nice little camp site for herself and naruto, she had enough fire wood to last the night and she had hunted some rabbits just in case naruto woke up and was hungry, what worried her the most was the fact that the blond seem to be dead to the world. Sure she had seen chakra exhaustion on many ninja but naruto was the first one who showed no sings of the usual symptoms associated with chakra exhaustion, if any thing he seems to just be resting, just sleeping as if nothing had happened as if he had never been injured at all.

"You ok?"

She snapped out of her daze and focused at the blond who was smiling at her as if nothing had happened. standing up naruto looked at her and saw her startled expression on her face, he knew what she was feeling right now a lot of people were amazed at how quickly he healed and bounced back from injuries as if they had never happened.

"H-how?!"

"My chakra replenishes itself as fast as my body heals itself"

Haku nodded and frowned at the same time, the blond was full of surprised she had originally thought that his healings abilities were due to the strange chakra, but it seem that it was not as simple as that. But now with what he had told her she was beginning to get an idea on how he worked, his healing takes a lot of chakra out of him so his body is force to produce twice the amount of chakra it would normally use to compensate the drain his healings causes his body. Naruto smiled at her and looked around the small campsite, this would not do, he needed new clothes and he wanted a bath badly.

"Haku"

No answer the girl was still deep in thought, he shakes his head; the girl was still pondering what he had told her. he knew that it would be natural for her to wonder about his abilities but she was taking it too seriously, it had to be her natural response after all she was trained to figure out an opponent is abilities, to figure them out and then find a weakness in them.

"Haku?"

No response and this time he decided to just forget about her and do what he was going to do, pulling on the small hanging whistle on his left shoulder he breaks it an out pops a small capsule. He knew that by doing this he would be revealing quite a great deal to the girl but there was just something about her that made him want to trust her so he pushed the button on the top of the capsule and throws it a couple of feet away.

POOF

"AH!"

Haku had been deep in thought, trying to figure out some one is a hard process and yet she had figured out more difficult things in her travels, so finding out how the boy worked should be easy enough. All she had to do was concentrate and she should be able to do it by morning, she how ever never got to finish her deep thoughts thanks to a mysterious appearance of a house, a big house. Her eyes wide and mouth hanging open she looks towards naruto and sees him standing up as if nothing is wrong, then he simply walks towards the house opens the door and walks inside.

"Are you coming inside or what?"

His head pops up from inside the house and she just looks at him as if he is crazy, her mind tries to come up with something but there is no logic, there is no explanation on how a house just pops out of no were. Naruto frowned when she does not respond to his calls and simply walks right up to her, grabs her hand and leads her inside.

"W-w-what….what happened!?"

"Huh?...oh you mean the house? Don't worry about it; I brought it with me from another place"

"B-BUT"

IF figuring out the blond was difficult before it had just gotten a hundred times worse, what ever he had done he had done it so fast that she had not even been aware of how it happened, then again she was deep in thought so she had to have missed him doing what ever it was that he did. Shaking her head she wonders if she isn't going insane.

"It's called a capsule corp. house; it comes out of this small capsule……."

He sounded crazy and by the look the girl was giving him he knew that he might look like one right now, so taking a deep breath he looks around the house and smiles at the old place, it was amazing how just being home could change your mood from grouchy, tired and over all feeling like crap to just feeling content all around. It was a small house probably the smallest model the capsule corp. corporation did but it was enough, three bedrooms 2 baths one kitchen that was about it, he turned towards haku and saw that she still was standing in the entry hall way, helping her out of her slippers and guiding her inside he gave her the grand tour.

First off it was the small living room which broke off into three different hall ways, one leading to the kitchen and the other two leading towards the bedrooms he smiled when he saw her trying to sit down on the couch near the entrance, it seem that haku was still in a daze as to how a house could appear from out of no were.

"This is incredible"

"What's incredible is that we have light, running water and all the comforts of home"

"B-but how is that even possible?"

Her mind was still trying to catch up to this new information, the whole thing seem to be impossible and yet here she was in a house that had come from just a small little capsule, she looked towards the blond and saw him take a deep breath.

"Look I know it seems unreal but….if you were to know the whole truth"

"W-what truth?"

She couldn't take much more of this, what ever naruto was or had witness was beyond her understanding, and yet she couldn't help but want to know.

"The truth about humans far more powerful than any thing you have ever seen, about beings from other planets who can destroy worlds with a wave of there hand"

"W-what are you saying? How is that possible? Is that even possible?!"

He nodded his head and haku knew that he was not lying, every thing he had told her was true she could see the truth behind his eyes and despite herself she could hear the sincerity in his words, there was no deceptions here there was only truth, as impossible as it sounded naruto was telling the truth.

"They are from another world haku; they are the ones who trained me"

"I….I see"

Now she knew why he was so strong, why despite every thing they had done he had won and they had lost, who ever these people were they had trained naruto, they had taught him every thing he knew, it was amazing to her how some one with such power had so much restraints in using them.

"You're wondering why I didn't turn my back against konoha."

"No, I know you're a good person and that you would never do such a thing despite the way you were mistreated"

"Well I'm glad you think so, so if there is any thing else what say you we take a shower?"

"WHAT!?"

Despite herself, she felt her whole body shiver and her face immediately blushed, naruto looked at her and frowned, but unfortunately, for him he had no time to figure out what was her problem when she began to remove her clothing. His eyes popped out of his sockets and he immediately turned around.

"W-WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING!?"

Haku raised an eye brow at the blond and frowned when she noticed he had turned around, he had asked her to take a shower so why was he acting so weird? Wasn't this what he had wanted?

"You wanted to take a shower?"

"YES BUT….WAIT WAIT, oh man you got his all wrong!"

"What did I do wrong?"

Naruto closed his eyes and turned around towards her, he couldn't do this facing away from her he had to do it face to face, even if his eyes were closed after all he didn't want to see any thing more than that milky white shoulder that send all kinds of weird and exiting feelings trough his body.

"I mean for you to take a shower in your own room and me on my own room"

"Oh….."

"What oh?"

She seem to be confused and some what perplexed at his words venturing a look he opened one eye and saw her pulling her clothes back on, this was a good thing what was not a good thing was the look of confusion and hurt on her face, which in turned made him groan in annoyance, he had no idea what he had done wrong. Experience had taught him that being nice and polite to women was the way to go and that if he did any thing perverted or things that would be considered perverted then there would be pain involved a lot of pain.

"W-what's wrong? What I do?"

"I don't know, it's different with you"

"Different?"

"W-with zabusa…….I-it was"

She looked away and naruto could see the shade of red in her face, he took a deep breath and walked towards her, despite him having no idea what she was talking about he knew when some one was distressed. He embraced haku and provided comfort to her, he knew that words would probably make things worse since he had no idea what to say, or had any idea what was wrong he hoped that a simple hug would do.

(((((((Team 7)))))))

Kakashi looked at the bridge and frowned, even though the moon light did not illuminate the whole area as the sun is rays would he could still see the sings of battle, the blood splattered every were and the villagers all cleaning the bodies from it. What he did noticed how ever was that every one seem to be silent about a certain blond, no one spoke of him; it seem that naruto was long gone when they had arrived but if that were true then why lie to him? He was a ninja he knew how to detect lies and these people were all liars.

"Sensei, I checked the bodies no dark haired girl and no blond hair boy"

"I suspected as much, there is nothing we can do about it, not until morning"

"So you think they are still alive?"

"Yes they are and for naruto is sake I hope he comes back before we head out to konoha"

The young uchiha looked at his sensei and frowned, what ever had happened on the bridge had unsettle the man, the same could be said about sakura who kept babbling about how the dark hair girl had a friend who leaked a horrible chakra, what ever had happened, had scared them. Sakura is description was vague at best; all she would say was how some one had leaked a red chakra that was vile and horrible, that no human could have that kind of chakra. When he had asked kakashi he had simply told him to not ask and to keep his eyes open in case there blond teammate returned, sasuke knew that all of this was due to naruto and he wouldn't stop until he found out what had happened and why kakashi seem to be so concern about naruto and his whereabouts.

Sakura looked at kakashi and sasuke with a frown, by look on sasuke is face it was clear that kakashi had no answer all of the boy is questions; it seem that not even sasuke was told what had happened on the bridge, what ever it was that had happened kakashi was remaining quiet and not telling them any thing. However, sakura was not stupid, she had seen the way kakashi had avoided her gaze whenever she had asked him about naruto, she had seen how he looked around as if on guard as if waiting for something to happened, whatever had happened or whatever kakashi knew it was clear that naruto was in the middle of it.

There was too much evidence that pointed in the direction of the blond, and she was determined to find out what exactly had happened to him, she had been to far from the action to actually see what was going on and the damn mist had been too thick for her to see any thing but shadows moving around. Taking a deep breath she walks towards the edge of the bridge and looks at the water below, there was something troubling kakashi and naruto was responsible. The warnings that her teacher had given her seem to be based on something he knew about naruto, yet despite this, she could not bring herself to think of naruto as a betrayer, as some one that could hurt them.

"What's wrong?"

"I-inari w-what are you still doing here?"

The boy smiled and pointed at were his grandfather was along side the workers of the bridge, it seem that despite every thing that had happened tazuna couldn't wait to get back to building that bridge of his, now with more workers seeing as how the was no more danger lurking around.

"Grandpa is exited to have all the workers back, so he is going over what needs to be done tomorrow"

"I see, now that there is no more gato they are free to finish this bridge with out them having to have to worry about there lives"

"Yeap, so how are you?"

She looked at inari and was touched by the concern behind his eyes, it seem that naruto was not the only one who had made an impact on the boy, she smiled at the small blush on the kid and wished that sasuke would look at her like that.

"I'm okay just worried about naruto"

"You are?"

She looked at his expression and frowned, was it that hard to believe that she cared about naruto? Sure she might be some what violent towards him but, she frowned and realized that despite her feelings of friendship that she had for naruto she realized that she didn't show it to the outside world, inside the actually enjoyed the blond is company and yet in the outside all she showed towards him was hostility. Taking a deep breath, she smiled at the boy.

"I guess I haven't been too much of a friend towards him have I?"

"Don't worry; you can make it up to him when you see him"

"You think I will see him again?"

"Of course you will"

He smiled at her and rushed away from the her, all the while laughing his head off, something told sakura that the kid knew a lot more than what he was telling them. Turning her gaze towards kakashi and sasuke she could see the worried look on there faces and frowned, what ever naruto had done, what ever the reason he had for running away she knew that he would never abandon them or betray them. She could not explain how she knew this, she only knew that if there was one thing she could count on it was naruto.

(((((NARUTO & HAKU)))))

After the whole misunderstanding he had finally been able to take a shower and change into a new pair of clothes, walking out of the bathroom he could see that haku was finally beginning to come out of her shock and had already establish herself in the house. After a somewhat awkward conversation he had finally understood why haku had tried to undress before him, why she misunderstood him, it seems that she was more than just a weapon to zabusa. After hearing that he could understand why the man meant so much to the girl, but he had also come to the realization that if he ever-meet zabusa again he was going to kill him. He had treated her as nothing more than a tool and that he could not forgive, not after what he had taken away from her.

"Haku?"

She was sitting down on one of the three couches in the living room the girl smiled shyly at him and motions him to sit down, he smiled and declined, he needed to clear things up with the hokage as soon as possible.

"Sorry haku but I have to go and visit old man hokage"

"W-what"

She knew that he was fast but he had just recovered from a serious injury, besides that his chakra was lower than what it should be, there was no way he could make it all the way to the village.

"Don't worry I'll be back before you know it"

"How is that even possible?"

He smiled and placed two fingers to his forehead.

"I will be back in an hour"

With that said he vanished and haku was left gaping at the place were naruto had stood, she had seen him vanish before but there was no way that he could cover such distances with that technique right? As she was left wondering in the capsule corp. house naruto materialized right before the hokage is very eyes, the man had been doing another all night in his office when all of a sudden the blond demon container appeared before his eyes.

"N-naruto? How?"

"We need to talk"

CONTINUED


	8. Chapter 8

**TEACHER**

**VIII**

"**MASK"**

The hokage looked at the young man before him and could see the worry washing over his body, there was something very wrong here, naruto was supposed to be in the land of waves. He was supposed to be with kakashi on his first C-class mission and yet he was right before him staring at him with eyes that were unknown to the old man.

The eyes that were looking at him were not of a 13 year old, they held to much maturity and to much strength. Naruto could see the confusion in the man is eyes and frowned, this was not going to be easy he knew that if he wanted the hokage is help then he needed to trust him, not once had the old man given him any indication that he would hurt him; taking a deep breath he closed his eyes.

"H-how is?"

He knew that he needed to get his point across as soon as possible, it was the only way to make the old man understand that he was not the young man he knew.

"It's a technique, I use it to teleport from one place to another as long as I can focus on a person is chakra signature"

The hokage looked at him and frowned, that was a new one. Here was a 13-year-old boy, the dead last of the academy telling him that he had used a technique that he knew nothing off. Naruto frowned when he saw the look on the old man is face; he knew that he was close to losing what little attention he had, being a renown prankster didn't help his case either.

"Is this a joke?"

"No joke old man, I'm stronger than I let you all to believe"

"How so?"

"I been training since I was five years old and I had a teacher"

Now sarutobi was interested, there was no way that any konoha jounin or chunning would take an interest in the blond boy, the adult generation hated him for what he had sealed inside of him, looking at naruto he could see the seriousness behind the boy is eyes. There was something else hidden behind his blue eyes, he was not the boy he had always known something had happened, there was knowledge there, far grater than any 13 year old should know, but what was worse was the fact that he saw something else, he saw experience in battle.

"I am not showing you my stupid mask old man, this is who I am"

He had changed, but not because of the mission, he had given them but because of something much more complicated and complex, it was as if he knew more than he did. That look should never be on a child face and yet here he was facing a 13 year old who had seen things that should not be seen by a child. Despite his short life in the world naruto had endure more than any normal person should, he was hated by all and treated as an outcast by children his own age, no one socialized with him or asked if he was doing ok, no one cared.

Yet all that didn't explain why he acted the way he did, he could handle himself well in any situations and more surprisingly his social skills had not been stunned or harmed in any way, what was more kakashi had reported that his level of skill in a battle field was far beyond that of a normal genin. He just wished that his evaluation had gone according to plan.

"W-what has happened to you naruto?"

"When I was little, do you remember the first time you took me to the hospital?"

The old man wince and looked away, he remembers every single one of those days, every time he had to be there just for the doctors to do there jobs and to assure that none of them tried to kill the boy.

"Yes"

"A man had thrown a stone at my head and my skull was fracture"

"What does this have to do with…?"

"I was one year old, I remember that incident"

The old man is whole face turned white at the realization, he raised a shaking hand and placed it over his mouth, if what naruto was saying was true then every thing he had experience as a child would be firmly planted in his mind, every single beating forever carved in his memories. The old hokage looked away from naruto and shakes his head in response, this couldn't be happening, if what he was saying was true then how was it possible for a child to maintain there sanity? How was naruto able to hold every thing inside and not show any of this to any one? Naruto seeing the look of sheer horror on the old man is face smiled weakly; this was not what he wanted. The old man had always been kind to him and had done the best he could to take care of him, it was not his fault that the villagers did what they did; and the hokage is powers could only do so much after all.

He how ever knew that if goku had no come along he would not be here, eventually the villagers would have gotten to him if not them then some one else, but eventually his luck was going to run out. Not only that but goku had given him stability, had given him friends and family to socialize with, he had given him a childhood and if it weren't for him his life would be a mess.

"H-how…?"

"The fox inside of me"

It was one of the curses the fox had given him, but he was not going to tell the old man that, by the look on his face he already had too much information and was doing his best to take it all in with out acting out in an unknown manner. To much information could freak out the old man, he needed to play this close to the heart, not reveal to much but just enough to get him to help.

"Then you remember every thing?"

"Yeah, but I don't blame you old man, beside I had some good friends that helped me get trough the harder days"

Mentioning these "friends" made the hokage is face lit up and he shifted his focus entirely on the boy, if he had managed to befriend some one then perhaps there was hope for the villagers, perhaps there was hope for his village. Beside that naruto had mentioned a teacher, apparently some one had been training him and showing him in secret, which he could understand given the way the council acted towards naruto.

"These friends and teacher you keep mentioning are they from the village?"

Naruto smiled and shakes his head in the negative, moving slowly towards the window besides the room he looks up at the moon and smiles, the old man still had faith in the village.

"No they were…They were from a far away land"

"Oh?"

Sarutobi leaned forwards and placed his elbows on the desk before him, who ever these friends were; naruto seem to be pretty attached to them, the look he had gotten when he looked out the window told the old man just how much the blond boy missed these friends of his. Naruto for the most part knew that the hokage would continue to ask him questions about his friends, but he didn't need that right now, besides he highly doubted that the old man would believe any thing he said about the other world.

"Look old man I didn't come here to talk to you about that, I came because I need your help"

"With what?"

"Well you see there was this incident"

The demon is chakra had leaked out and apparently when this fusion of charkas happened it allowed the fox to influence naruto and make him act out in wild like manner. The news didn't surprised the old man as he had been told by the seal master that some of the fox is personality might seep trough the seal and affect the boy; hence, why naruto had always been carefully watched. if there was ever any indication that the demons was taking to much of a hold on the boy then certain matters would have had to be taken. Luckily, for naruto the old man wasn't surprised by the news, instead he examined the seal and told naruto what he should expect from these so call mergers, or fusions if you will.

The chakra of the fox would not only give naruto a boost of powers but it would also influence his minds and natural instincts, if he were ever in danger than his primary instinct would be to keep himself safe by any means necessary. The cost of using the demons is chakra how ever was that he was not completely in control of what he did, his body would act on his own acting on sheer instinct and determination to kept itself from being harm, this allowed the fox a certain degree of control over his host body.

"So back in wave?"

He had listen to the hokage is explanation and was satisfied with the explanation, sitting down in one of the chairs in the room he turns towards the hokage and looks at the man is worried expression with a frown, it seem that the old man was still worried about the incident. Sarutobi simply took a deep breath and began to clean his pipe; placing new tobacco on it, he lit it up leaned back on his chair and began to inhale the relaxing vapors.

"It didn't take over as much as push your survival instincts to the extremes, as per you having to fight him for domain, well he is a demon so there is no telling how much control he can gain"

The eyes he was giving him creped naruto out, there was a warning behind those words and a promised of what would happen if that beast took too much control over his body.

"That's why I had to push his chakra back…"

"Precisely, in order for the demon to affect you to such a degree were he can some how control you he needed to push some of his chakra trough your body"

"He just controls my body right? So all I have to do is to get out of this demon state is to push his chakra back with my own"

"Easier said than done, the nine tails has an unlimited supply of chakra"

"Yeah but he can't push it all at once or he can kill me, if I die he dies right? So I don't think he will be risking damaging his host is body"

"True, but then how much chakra did you used in wave to push him back?"

"Half of my own…but we didn't go all out, he had used some of his chakra to heal my body and that had take his toil on my body, if we had put more pressure on my being then I think I would not be here right now"

The old man nodded, for now the seal had held off the demons is chakra and naruto had been able to push it back, but when naruto grew older, things could get complicated. His chakra network was still developing and if the incident was, any indication the demon was doing his fair share to expand it to accommodate his massive chakra. The demon was preparing his host for when the time came he would not doubt tried to take over, naruto seeing the concern in the old man is eyes smiled and took a deep breath, it was time to get to the serious issues here.

"You know kakashi doesn't trust me"

"What makes you say that?"

"Every thing, I think he is afraid of what I hold inside or that I might turn on them"

The hokage frowned, kakashi had witness the incident and would most likely report it to him, he could deal with it fine but kakashi had a bad habit of drinking and babbling to his old anbu buddies about his missions, this was fine since the anbu could keep secrets pretty well but when it came to this. Most anbu still hated the demon and despite knowing that naruto was not the demon, they still wanted payback on the beast that had decimate there ranks.

"I will handle kakashi, but I don't recommend you go back to wave if I know kakashi he would want answers on what happened to you"

"Answers he can't handle right?"

Naruto smiled, he knew from the first moment he had seen the silver hair man that he knew of what he had inside of him, Every since he was little he had learned to read people. To tell who knew what was inside of him and to keep away from them, kakashi had not been any different, he was almost angry with him for some reason as if he was blaming him for something.

"Right, so I guess you should get home"

"About that…i-i- was wondering if I could bring some one I meet in wave"

"Oh?"

"She was zabusa momochi is partner and I…well I kind of befriended her and she betrayed her master to be with me I…"

Sarutobi smirked and raised an eyebrow, naruto had met a girl, a girl whom he had befriended and was apparently with him. Looking at the babbling boy in front of him he couldn't help but be reassure that this was the same old naruto, just a more experience once that had lead a life no human being should have lived, he could accept the change in the boy, how could he not when he knew what he had gone trough. If naruto wanted to hide who he truly was, how strong he truly was then he would allow it because it was naruto is way of handling a situation that he shouldn't have to deal with in the first place.

The boy had endure enough in his life, he didn't need to add to the long list, the boy deserved a break and if helping this girl out then so be it, besides if this girl had befriended naruto then at least naruto could have some one in the village that actually liked him, naruto would gain a friend and all he head to do was welcome a talented ninja to the academy.

"You like this girl?"

"W-W-HAT?!...n-no it's just I"

"It's quite all right, you can bring her over"

"I'll be here tomorrow"

"I will be waiting"

ONE WEEK LATER

Kakashi and team 7 minus one entered the hokage tower and found much too there surprised a very happy hokage sitting behind his desk, iruka was right beside him and despite them just entering the room the hokage and iruka continued talking about a perfect pair. When they noticed them however the immediately shut up and turned to face them, the hokage looked at the team and smiled waving them to come closer to the table.

"Kakashi how was the mission?"

The Cyclops is eye widen in surprised, he knew how much the old man appreciated and liked naruto and yet he didn't even noticed the blond is absence. The others were equally surprised but not by the hokage but by iruka is behavior, he seem to just be looking at the files searching for the one that belong to there squad.

"Sir we had to upgrade it from a "C" rank to at least "A" rank"

"I see. Encountered trouble did we?"

"Zabusa momochi was a hired to kill our bridge builder"

"Ok then, iruka make the proper adjustments and give them an "A" rank mission payment"

The man with the scar across his face nodded and began to fill out the proper forms, the team before them noticed the lack of question or concern on there faces and while kakashi and sasuke looked at each other with mix emotions; a certain pink hair girl was outrage. She knew that iruka cared for naruto, the man wouldn't be so interested in the boy is life other wise and as for the hokage, the way naruto referred to him meant that they shared a close relationship with one another, so for them to just ignore his absence it was unforgivable.

"Doesn't any one notice that naruto is not with us?"

Her tone was silent but it was also laced with a warning, both the hokage and the chunning looked at her with amused and surprised look on there faces, for one who seem to despite naruto she seem to be pretty upset by the way they had acted.

"We noticed"

"THEN WHY!? DOSENT ANY ONE…..doesn't any one care for him?"

Kakashi saw the serious look on the hokage and frowned, he knew he should have more control over his student, placing a hand on sakura is shoulder he tried to calm her down but all that got was for the girl to pull away from him and sent a glare towards him.

"Sakura calm down!"

"I WON'T!"

"SILENCE!"

The hokage is voice made every one freeze, the old man had seen the way kakashi had tried to silence his student and he didn't like it, he should be equally insulted that they had paid little attention to naruto is absence and yet he had not said a word. The team turned towards the village is leader and frowned when they saw the look he was giving them; it was not one of annoyance but a calculating one, as if trying to figure every thing out.

"Despite what you think, we know naruto is not with you, this was a test"

Kakashi looked at the old man and frowned, the same with sasuke and sakura, as for the hokage he simply closed his eyes and shakes his head, he had listen to what naruto had said and despite believing in naruto he had to make sure, now how ever he knew that the boy was right, kakashi didn't trust him. The Jounin didn't know what had happened to his student and yet he saw not one ounce of concern in the man is face, the same could be said about sasuke.

"A-a t-test?"

"Yes and I have my answer, sasuke, sakura please leave the room"

Despite wanting to object, they knew when to obey an order, especially one that came from the hokage, the two left the room and kakashi turned to face the old man. He knew what the test had been about and despite being a little put off by it he couldn't deny what had just happened. Sasuke was a bit surprised and somewhat fearful of what the test could mean, as for sakura she was just angry about the way she had been ignored, when they left, the room she hadn't even bother to look at sasuke is direction. While back inside the room, the hokage looked at the copycat with a frown on his face.

OUTSIDE THE ROOM

Sakura looked at sasuke and wondered what he thought of all of this, what had the hokage meant when he told them that it had been a test, a test to prove what? What porpoise would it serve if he found out what there reactions would be? That how ever didn't bother her as much, what did bother her was the lack of emotions on there faces. Naruto didn't deserve to be forgotten so easily, she could see that sasuke was deep in thought about something, but that didn't meant mean she knew what he was thinking about.

Ever since sasuke had woken up he had been weird, he only spoke to kakashi and when ever she would bring naruto up both her teammate and teacher would change the subject and look away from her, kakashi had reassured her that every thing would turn out ok, some how she doubted that. Kakashi believed that naruto was dangerous while sasuke feared him to be a betrayer; none of those characteristics was consistent on what she knew of naruto. The boy might not be what he appeared to be but he was none of those things.

"Y-y-you ok sasuke?"

The last uchiha smirked and nodded, he wanted to say something but he couldn't, so he simply walked away from her, how could he tell her that this mission had given him a glimpse into a reality that he had never thought of, a reality that would be very constant in his life. He had seen his mortality, had experience defeat and he didn't like it, he was weak he had been bested by another ninja and had it not been for that ninja is weakness he would have died on that bridge. Dying was not acceptable, if he did then no one would carry out his mission, no one would be there to avenge his clan, his family, he couldn't die.

"Sasuke?"

She closed her eyes and turned around from the retreating boy, did he know nothing of pain or sorrow? Was he really that cold? Shaking out of her thoughts she rushed out of the building and ran, she ran for what seem like hours until she bumped into someone. The figure managed to hold her still and adverted her fall, she pulled away and bowed in apology.

"Sorry I"

"It's okay"

Sakura looked up and meet a beautiful looking girl smiling at her, and despite knowing that this was a girl before her, she couldn't help but blush at the sight of such a beautiful girl. Perfect check bones, red puffy lips and big brown eyes stared at her, but what was more annoying was the fact that even the girl is hair was perfect. If the girl wasn't cover, up in that pink kimono of hers then she would surely have one hell of a following, every guy was already staring at her, if she showed a bit more skin they would already be passed out from blood loss.

"W-wow"

The brown haired girl giggled at the stunned look on the pink hair is face; she always found it funny how people reacted to her looks.

"Are you all right Miss Ninja?"

Sakura snapped out of her thoughts and nodded, she couldn't believed that she had been checking out a girl, she hadn't done that since ino and that had been a long, long time ago.

"Y-yes I am ok…b-but how did you know?"

The girl smiled and tapped sakura is headband, sakura is blush intensified and quickly nodded, of course, it was obvious, she was in a ninja village after all. Seeing the mortified look on the pink hair girl is face the elder girl smiled in a reassuring way, she had meet this girl before, but that was in a different place and she was a different person.

"Are you all right?"

"Y-yeah I…I just realize…."

Sakura looked away from the elder girl is face and frowned, she had just realized that she was useless, as things were right now she was sure that if she didn't shaped up she would be replaced by another ninja, a stronger one. Her team was falling apart right before her eyes and she couldn't do any thing to stop it, kakashi was in his own little world, sasuke was always pushing them away and naruto, naruto was just an oddity that she couldn't figure out.

"Just realized what?"

"That I am useless"

The brown hair girl nodded and smiled, she couldn't help but feel sympathy for the girl, she had been there once before and it wasn't a pretty feeling, knowing that you weren't needed that if something were too happened to you no one would mourn your loss. Sakura just took a deep breath and wondered if this was what she really wanted to do, after all she was the first haruno to become a ninja, and all because of one stupid boy.

"I see. You're afraid that you are being left behind"

"I am being left behind; I am the weakest member of my team!"

The elder girl nodded and smiled, sakura frowned and was about to scream at the girl for agreeing with her when she felt the girl is soft touch on her head, she placed her hand on top of her head and smiled at sakura.

"You're not weak"

"How would you know?"

She could see that the pink haired girl was getting a bit frustrated so she ruffled her pink hair chuckled, she had been were this was, long ago she had the same doubts and same fears as she did.

"Because you care for your friends"

Something about that made sakura freeze, those words held some secret meaning to them, but as reassuring as that was the facts were clear, she was weak.

"I want to be strong"

"Do you?"

"I…"

"Meet me here tomorrow and I can make you stronger"

Sakura frowned and the brown hair girl just walked passed her, but just as she was about to completely be out of sight sakura called out to her.

"W-who are you?"

The girl smiled and lifted her hand, waving good-bye with out turning around, much like naruto did.

"I am haku"

HOKAGE & KAKASHI 

"I failed?"

Kakashi is slack attitude combined with the irritation of being tested made for a very upset jounin, but what was calming down was the fact that the hokage seem to just smiled and continued to puff away.

"Your lack of emotions over a student is death is concerning"

Looking closely at kakashi he could see that the copy cat was un faced by his little test, the sharingan user knew all along why he and iruka were so calm, he probably knew that naruto was fine, what other reason could he have for being so calm? Kakashi is lack of concern for naruto had been a wake up call for the old man. He had been sure that kakashi would be one of the few who would care for naruto considering who he was.

"But my student isn't dead is he?"

"No and he is no longer your student, naruto uzumaki will work with your unit, but he will not be under your supervision"

"I still have"

Kakashi wanted to plead his case, to make the hokage understand that there was a danger lurking inside of the blond, but the hokage wouldn't allow it. The hokage had had enough of him; he could see it in the eyes of the old man, on how disappointed he was on him and on his performance.

"The incident in wave will be consider an "S" rank secret, dismissed"

The sharing user stared at the hokage with a gaping mouth, this was a serious matter that needed to be dealt with and here was the hokage treating it as if it was just another daily life occurrence, taking a deep breath he does something that he has not done since he was a genin. He defies the order and stands his ground, the demon had been release or at the very least the seal had been weakened this should not be dealt with so lightly, iruka watched in amazement as kakashi openly defied the hokage and stood against him, much to the chunnin is surprised the old man simply smiled.

Naruto had been right all along, kakashi was concern about the boy is tenant, he didn't see past the demon he just saw a treat that needed to be handled, he had chosen kakashi because he had studied under the forth, under the man whom saw beyond any kind of prejudice and favoritism, the forth hokage was the kind of man that saw beyond any defects or past mistakes, that is why he had picked young Obito as one of his genin students. Kakashi should have learned better, but he had not, he had turned out like every ignorant villager that simply saw the demon and not the boy who held back the beast.

"The demon is chakra leaked out of the boy, the seal is weakening"

"It is not weakening; it just did what was necessary for the boy to survive"

"To survive?"

The question along side with the incredulous look the jounin gave him annoyed the hokage, it seem that naruto was right once again, his suspicions that his teacher didn't like him or trusted him were confirmed, sadly the hokage knew what kakashi was doing. The sharingan user was looking for a way out of his responsibility; he didn't want to deal with naruto.

"I saw the massive scar on naruto is chest, it was done by zabusa is blade was it not?"

Now kakashi was sweating, he knew what his report had said and now the hokage was using it against him.

"As I stated in my written report, he jumped in front of the attack"

"Your sharingan along side with year of experience suggest that you should have been at least been able to move to intervene in some way, that way the attack should have connected with naruto is shoulder not chest"

"He is fast…faster than my sharingan"

Iruka frowned and looked at the two men who seem to be wondering what that meant, if what kakashi had said was the truth then naruto was far stronger than what they had first thought, there was no such things as faster than the sharingan. Even the fastest ninja gave something to it, a movement a trail something that those red eyes could glimpse at yet naruto had not given any thing away.

"That may be so but the seal still holds, and this conversation is over"

Seeing the warning look the old man gave him kakashi decided it was best to leave things as they were, the hokage seem to know more about what was going on than he did, and from what he could tell naruto had recently spoken to the old man. That meant that the seal has been checked out, for now the seal was holding and if one thing he knew it was that the hokage would never put the safety of the child before the safety of the village.

"Very well"

While kakashi left iruka turned towards the hokage and saw the man was deep in thought, there was something wrong with the way the they had spoken about naruto, he knew about the demon and all but despite that it seem that they were worried about something else.

"Hokage-sama is every thing all right with naruto?"

"I believe so, but it seem that he has been hiding his true power"

"W-what?"

"You should ask him, as for now on to more important matters, are the preparations for the chunning exams finished?"

"Yes sir, the message has been sent"

NARUTO

One week to train, he was thinking about what he was going to do in that week, he knew what his strengths were and what his weakness were, yet he couldn't help but wonder what was he? He didn't practice the ninja arts as the others did, he had managed to obtain something far more complicated than chakra, his body how ever still had trouble handling that little power. Looking at the ninja scroll laid out before him he has come to a conclusion and one he is not sure is the right one or if it is the wrong one, he calls himself a ninja, he was trained as a ninja but he had also been trained in another style, he couldn't be both, so he had decided.

He sucked at ninjutsu, genjutsu was a thing he couldn't even begin to understand or fight against, as for taijutsu hell, he was extremely good at that one, better than the most experience fighters out there but he was still young. His style was also wrong, other could outwit him could out fight him using there ninja tricks, so he needed to learn them so he could countered them, with haku by his side he had gained a tremendous amount of knowledge that would be very useful in the upcoming exams. He how ever had to deal with another very important matter, the fact that he was not 13 but almost 14, his time in the time room had aged him six months.

"Naruto!"

Snapping out of his thoughts he smiled and waved at haku, the girl had gone out shopping and had left him alone to study for a while, noticing the scrolls around naruto haku could only smiled and raised an eye brow in surprised.

"You have been at it since I left?"

"Yes, if what you told me is true then my ninja skills are none existent, which is why I need to learn this stuff"

"Genjutsu can't be learned trough a scroll naruto"

The blond frowned and she smiled at him, she knew that he had been doing his best and was trying to assimilated every thing he had missed to learn while going trough his academy years. But he could only do so much, and whit his skills being none existent she knew that he still had a long ways to go before even beginning to understand what a true ninja was capable off.

"Nor the other ninja subjects I know, but I don't care as long as I know what to expect I won't be surprised"

"You believed you're that good?"

She knew how strong he was but in this world there were surprises everywhere, walking towards the kitchen and placing the bags of groceries she had purchases she wondered what naruto was truly capable off, he sounded so sure of himself. Naruto followed her into the kitchen and frowned when he saw the worried expression in her face.

"Haku what is wrong?"

"You are strong I know that, but what of your teammates?"

He frowned and shakes his head, what could he say about them? That he hadn't the slightest clue as to what to make of them? That he had no idea what there skills were or how much hey had learned from there training with kakashi, He couldn't answer her and haku shakes her head.

"Being a ninja is all about team work"

"I am not a ninja"

The statement came with a firm tone of voice and she froze when she turned to face him, the naruto she knew was no were to be found, there was only a boy who held nothing but assurance as to what he was going to say next. Slowly she turned to fully face him and found that her throat had gone dry and her mouth refused to move.

"What are you then?"

She squeaked the question out and naruto smiled, but this smile was different it reassured her and yet worried her to no end.

"I am a warrior"

With that said he walked away from the kitchen and back to his scroll, in the kitchen haku wondered about those words and what the implications meant, a warrior, a lone fighter? How would one such as naruto fair in a world filled with ninjas? Closing her eyes she took a deep breath and nodded, she had done the right thing; if naruto had chosen the path of a warrior then he would need allies. While she wanted to be there for him she knew that there would be time when she would not be able to do it, hence why she had spoken to that sakura girl. She would become her substitute.

She knew that tomorrow the girl would show up and would train; she would become strong because she was afraid, she was afraid that they weren't going to noticed her that she was more of a bother than help, she was afraid to be forgotten. So she would train the girl, she would make her stronger and in return the girl would watch naruto is back, she would not let any thing happened to him, after all that is what the ninja hidden in the leafs were taught to do, to not abandoned your team.

---------------------------------------------------

Naruto uzumaki looked at haku and smiled, she seem to frown at the new clothing he had chosen, after what had happened the previous day she had noticed that the blond is attitude had changed some what, he was still the same naruto she knew but there was a maturity there that she had not seen. His change of clothing only added to her understanding that the blond was a boy who hid behind many layers, both physically and emotionally, she suspected that it was because of that he was able to survive and endure all this time, how else could he have survived in a village that hated him? She just hope that he had not developed any mental problems because of his act, split personalities were quite common in cases such as naruto, but she doubted that would happened, he had at least some form of human contact with the hokage and those people that trained him, still she worried some times.

"Are you sure you want to wear that?"

Naruto smiled and looked down at his outfit, it might be a little extreme but come on, orange jumpsuit was just screaming kill me, so he opted to wear something a little more blue and a little more white.

"I didn't wear it because I was afraid of what people might think"

"And now?"

"I don't care, I have haku now"

He smiled and rushed out of the door, she was dumfounded there for a second before a small smile spread across her face, it seem that a little boost in confidence was all the kid needed to drop his little act. She had been with him a little over a week and she had seen the changes in him, frowning she realized that the naruto she was seeing now was the true one, the one he had hidden away so that he could not be hurt, but now that he had her if any one hurt him he had her. It might have been a drastic change and it unnerved her some what but this was what he needed, if any thing else happened then she would be there for him, that is what it meant to be a precious person.

"So naruto I am helping you"

She smiled and turned to her duties for the day, as for naruto he had been summoned to a team meeting, the hokage had told him that he needed to attend and face his teammates sooner or later and the sooner would be preferable as the chunning exams were only a week away. He was supposed to meet his team in a bridge near the edge of the city limits were the training ground began, he could just teleport there but he had decided to take on the scenic route instead.

"HEADS UP!"

Naruto ducked and looked up at the person who had thrown the knife, it was the bug kid, and hinata is teammate.

"These are the training grounds?"

"Yes"

Naruto frowned, his calculations were off and by the way, the bug boy was looking at him he had noticed what he had been doing, or more precisely how he was traveling.

"You saw that didn't you"

"Seeing as how were are 40 feet above the ground yes, I did"

Now he knew he was screwed, he wasn't supposed to let his possible rivals or enemies know that he could defy gravity, shino was looking at him with a suspicious look and if it weren't for those glasses of his he was sure that he had both his eyes narrowed at him. The bug boy was surprised or the closest thing to surprised he could muster; he had been training with his team when he had felt a presence behind him. Acting on instinct, he had turned around and unleashed one of his kunai, he hadn't expected to see naruto uzumaki in what seem to be mid-flight sailing trough the air.

Closing his eyes, the aburame boy tried to process the information he had seen, but for the life of him he couldn't even begin to comprehend, the position naruto is body was in. He was horizontal and was expelling chakra, or what seems to be chakra, either way there was no mistaking what he had seen, the boy had been flying.

"I wasn't flying!"

An eyebrow raised above the aburame boy is dark sunglasses and naruto frowned, something told him that that was a bad sing.

"You whole body was horizontal, your whole body was covered in some kind of chakra and you were speeding at an alarming rate towards me"

"H-how did you?"

"My bugs are all over this area"

To illustrate his point shino raised his hand and extended one of his fingers, a small little bug landed on it and naruto frowned, he should have known that he had his little friend all over; if this was a training exercise then he would have spread them all over the area.

"So your little friends told you about me eh?"

"They just confirmed what I saw; h-how were you able to fly?"

"I extended chakra outwards, surrounded by body and molded it to be lighter than air, I then proceeded to let a burst of chakra outwards and directed to were I want to go"

If naruto could see the boy is eyes he would have seen that his eyes were as wide as serving plates, to do what naruto was explaining was impossible, it would required an immense amount of chakra, scratch that it would take an impossible amount of chakra. No one could do what the blond was telling him, and yet here he had witnessed it with his own eyes. What ever was surrounding naruto is body was not chakra, it was something else, it was similar to chakra but it was not chakra.

"T-that was not chakra"

Naruto thought about and nodded, it was true it was not chakra, but he didn't know if he should reveal what had happened to him, so he played the dumb card.

"That's what my teacher told me"

"Kakashi?"

"HA! Please, he hasn't taught me any thing I had other teachers, but that's enough for now I need to go"

"W-wait!"

His protest went un heard and naruto vanished in thin air, there was no way that the kid was real, he could fly and now he had just vanished before his eyes. Aside from that his bug were all exited. They had sensed a massive amount of power in naruto and had wanted a bite of it, but they had been too afraid to approach the blond.

"Shino?"

"Kurenai-sensei"

"Are you all right?"

"I will be"

Kurenai looked at her student and frowned, what ever had happened it had spooked shino badly, she could see that he was really shaken up about it.

"I sensed a massive chakra level"

"Naruto"

"W-what?"

"I need to go"

Kurenai is frowned deepened, her eyes narrowed, what ever had happened between naruto, and shino had disturbed the bug boy greatly. That spoke volumes about what had happened, how a normally stoic shino had been rattled by naruto was a mystery that she wanted resolve but something told her that the bug user was not ready to speak of it. Watching the boy walk away she made a decision to call off today is practice and go talk to a certain blond boy, but before she could do that she saw and all to familiar bird flying in the sky.

In another side of town sakura looked at sasuke and frowned, he had been way to serious ever since coming back from wave, he didn't talk as much and would simply respond to her with grunts and glares, her teacher was no better, he was focusing on mission and refused to speak about naruto. As for the blond boy, he had managed to keep out of sight for this whole time, his apartment was empty and no one seem to know of his were about, all she knew was that he was ok, that he was alive but was undergoing intensive treatment for some wounds he had suffered in wave.

She didn't buy that, something was wrong, they were lying to them and giving them a bogus story about him, how did naruto returned so fast from wave? How was he injured and why didn't any body know were he was? It just didn't make sense. Looking at her sensei she could see that she could get no answers from him, all he was doing was looking up at the sky.

"Sorry I have to go, file this mission report and all"

With that said he puffed out and left both sakura and sasuke staring at each other, the uchiha simply humped and walked away, sakura was about followed him but stopped and shakes head, what was the point? He would only turn her down. Walking in the opposite direction she wondered were naruto was.

"Hey you!"

She froze and looked around, there was no one there, so were had the voice come from? Looking downwards she saw a small boy wearing some goggles in his head, the same kind that naruto used to wear.

"Me?"

"Yeah you, you in naruto uzumaki is team right?"

"In naruto is team?"

She looked at the boy and frowned, who the hell was this kid, and how did he know naruto? Looking beside the boy she could see that he was no alone, beside him a girl with her hair sticking outwards in two pig tails looked at her with a frown on her face, the other, was a boy who had snot dripping out of his nose.

"Who are you?"

"I am konohamaru, rival to uzumaki naruto!"

"Rival? Look kid I suggest you find a better rival, how about one like sasuke?"

"You mean the jerk with the black hair?"

"Sasuke is no jerk, he is an uchiha!"

"Who cares, he still a jerk"

It was clear that the boy didn't know when to stop talking, or when to sense when to shut up, hell he didn't even know how to sense danger, seeing as how sakura was radiating it ever since he had insulted sasuke. The boy how ever was as clueless as naruto, the girl beside the boy how ever knew all too well what the girls is eyes were telling, she could see danger, she knew what was going to happened.

"Konohamaru-kun I think you should stop calling that boy a jerk"

"What? Come on moegi, he is a jerk right udon?"

"A-ah no"

"What? What's wrong with you? What are you?"

Then it hit him, there was danger all around him, then he turned towards the source and shivered, there was the pink hair girl with fire all around her and daggers for eyes. She was beyond angry and if the raised fist was any indication, there was pain coming, but lucky for him he had seen it coming and so he took off, unfortunately he was so busy trying to escape from the danger chasing him; that he did not noticed the danger that was before him. Before he could get away from the girl, he slammed against a guy wearing a black jump suit and make up on his face.

"Ouch!"

Konohamaru exclaimed and looked at the man before him. What ever or who ever that guy was, he knew he was dangerous, as for the man in question. He just look at the kid with half closed eyes and frowned, the girl beside him did the same, but when he spoke the hokage is grandson knew that he was in some type of danger.

"That hurt you little piece of shit"

The man is arm moved faster than the small boy could follow, and soon he found himself being lifted off the ground and staring at a make up face stranger, one who seem to be very pissed. The blond hair girl beside the guy who held konohamaru by the neck seem more annoyed than concern, sakura noticing this frowned and took a deep breath, this could be very bad.

"I'm sorry I was messing around"

What else could she do? She could very well go up to them and demand them to put the kid down, the blond girl beside the guy how ever looked at her "friend" and huffed air out of her lungs.

"Don't well get in trouble"

"Put him down"

Sakura froze, she recognized that voice, looking around she spotted him, the blond hair could only belong to him but the outfit, it was wrong, naruto didn't wear blue or a white vest. The man with the make up simply looked at the blond boy and smirked when he saw the symbol of the leaf on the blond is forehead.

"A leaf genin"

Naruto is blue eyes took in every thing around him, from sakura is surprised look to konohamaru is fear, the two other kids were scare to death and the blond girl beside the make up guy was anxious about something. It was as if she was worried about something completely unrelated to what was happening right now.

"Let's play a little before the boss comes"

Naruto frowned and his eyes connected with the make up guys is own, before any one could react or say any thing konohamaru was beside naruto.

"Lets not"

The blond boy had moved, had he moved? Sakura couldn't believe her eyes, she had not blinked and yet she had missed it and by the looks on the foreigners is faces they were in her same boat, they had no clue as to what had happened. The look of surprised and confusion on there faces gave every thing away, they didn't see any thing either, but if you looked closely at the area were naruto was standing you could see smudge marks on the ground.

"How the hell!?"

"Naruto they are foreign ninjas!"

Naruto turned to look at sakura and nodded, he had guessed as much from looking at there headbands, that weird hourglass thing was no leaf insignia. Turning back towards the strangers he smirked and crossed his arms.

"So is there going to be trouble?"

CONTINUED…..


	9. Chapter 9

TEACHER

Chapter VIIII

"HOW STRONG IS STRONG?"

((((HOKAGE TOWER))))

In the Hokage's chambers all Jonin gathered, they were here for only one reason. The Chunin exams were coming, it was time for the ninja nations to gathered and prove who was the superior of them all, this was a friendly competition or as friendly as it could get between enemy nations and ninjas trying to prove there worth. The Jonin gathered quickly divided themselves into groups, those who knew one another quickly began to gossip and gloat about there respective teams, one of the Jonin how ever was more concern with what could happened if he let his squad join. He had an avenger who was to ready to prove himself, that could be a problem, and then there was Sakura the least prepare out of all of them.

Then there was Naruto, he was the most dangerous being out of all of them, he was able to fight off Zabusa and he accomplish this with the slightest of effort and if what Sakura and Sasuke told him was true then Naruto could do amazing things and charka was no problem for him. If he was a danger to the team then how could he willingly allow him to participate in this test? Then again he had saved them, which didn't mean much considering how close off the boy was from the others and from him, Naruto was a wild card and if things didn't shape up soon he didn't know what to expect from the blond.

(The Hokage trust him, there is no evidence that he could be a danger to the team, but that much power)

"Kakashi! Does this competition does not ignite the power of youth in you?!"

Maito Gai looked at him with that big smile of his and kakashi closed his eye, this couldn't get any worse, then again seeing Asuma Sarutobi right beside Kurenai Yuuhi, walking up to him he knew that things were going to get a lot worse, being competitive was one thing and at time he liked to show off his squad to other, but now it was not a good day, not after every thing that had happened.

"Hey Gai, you signed up your squad?"

"Just as every other Jonin"

He gave him his classic thumps up and smiled at the others who were right beside him, Kurenai nodded and Asuma smirked in confidence, it seem that they had all signed up there teams to participate in the exams, he still wasn't sure if he was going to go trough with it. The others picking up on Kakashi is little mood and immediately glanced at each other, they had seen Naruto running around the village a week before Kakashi's arrival, they had also seen him with a beautiful girl. What they had not seen was his team with him.

"What's with the long face Kakashi? Afraid your squad is not up to it?"

Asuma glanced at the others and nodded, depending on what his reaction would be they would get an idea as to what was bothering the copycat, so far the man had been sitting on one of the room is corners looking at three sing up sheets before him, the others weren't sure how they should feel about it

"Not exactly"

He was afraid for the other squads, Naruto could show the other nations what the hidden village of the leaf was all about, but he was also competing against the other Genin of the village, and reading his profile only told him that Naruto had more than enough reason to hate every one. They had mocked and insulted him through the school years, it was not hard to picture him having a grudge against the other Genins.

Yet before he could say any thing Iruka walked to the room and signaled the Jonin to follow him, entering the Hokage tower they saw the papers before him and smiled, the forms were ready now all they needed to do was formerly declare there intentions.

(((W/NARUTO)))

"Calm down Kankuro!"

The blond girl beside the make up guy glared at him and reached out towards his shoulder, the make up guy simply smirked and pulled away from her.

"Shut it Temari!"

Naruto frowned, so there names were Kankuro and Temari, there headbands made them foreign ninja, which mean that he could expect anything from them. Kankuro looked at the blond with a glare, whatever the kid had done it had been faster than the eye could see, it was no jutsu or any thing of the sort; if it had been a jutsu he would have felt a spike in chakra, but he had felt nothing, he hadn't seen nothing, the kid was that fast. Moving his hand slightly he was sent one of his chakra strings towards the boy only for it to be stepped on by the blond who then meet his gaze and smirked.

"String with chakra, never seen that before"

The blond girl looked at her brother and frowned, this was quickly getting out of hand, they were guest in the village and they had to watch what they did; certain regulations applied to visiting ninja and her brother was breaking them all. She wanted to stop him but she knew that it would only make matters worse; Kankuro had a bad habit of doing the opposite of what she said just to annoy her. Naruto on the other hand simply looked at Kankuro and frowned if the chakra string had been an attack then the boy would have not sent it right out in the open, it was as if he was playing with him, Foolish mistake, ninjas didn't play.

"How did you….?"

Kankuro glared at the blond kid, whoever this little Genin was he was no ordinary one that was for sure, he had detected his chakra string with little effort. Sure he had not put enough effort into hiding the string is Chaka signature but even so no one should be able to sense or feel them that easily, this kid was looking more and more like a challenge.

"You don't need to know as to how I knew; you just need to answer my question"

The make up boy smirked and went for the massive bandage bag behind his back, whatever that thing was it had a chakra signature similar to that of the make up wearing boy, Kankuro slammed the bandage bag on the ground and smirked.

"Your annoying, all of you and I don't like that, so I will just break you in half"

Temari frowned and looked at her brother with worry, this was getting out of hand, when Kankuro was like this he always out of control, looking at the blond boy standing in front of her brother she could see his eyes fixed on everything, he was not only focusing on his opponent but at everything at once. Who ever this kid was he was no ordinary Genin, he had battle experience and he knew how to handle himself, what was more troublesome was the calm look on his face. This kid was ready for anything, he wouldn't be surprised or be caught off guard if something happened, no this kid, he was something else.

"That's it I am staying out of this"

Naruto looked at the make up wearing boy and smiled, the chakra signature he was getting from both the blond girl and the make up boy were pretty strong, probably chunnin level or stronger, they were no ordinary Genin that much he knew, what was worrying him was the four chakra signatures coming from the trees. One was next to Sasuke, not far to the right side of the tree tops, that chakra was by far the strongest he had felt in a long time, the other three were strong but nothing special, they were observing the small confrontation, which meant that something could go wrong very fast.

((( W/HOKAGE)))

The Hokage looked at the assembled ninjas and smirked, they all knew what this was about, but were a bit worried about having them so soon, unfortunately the Hokage didn't have much say in what happened outside of the village is walls. If he rules of the land decide to do something they did it and they; the ones who served them were the ones who were stuck with the consequences of those actions.

"It's already that time"

Kakashi's words were echoed in everyone's minds, they had only gotten there Genin a couple of months ago and yet here they were ready to sing them up for the next level of a ninja is life, sure they had options but they also knew what it meant to not participate in them. The village had to show there power, one way or another, if they didn't participate then they would look weak to the other villagers and they couldn't have that.

"It's already been reported to the other countries, I saw them in the village, so when is it?"

Kurenai looked at the other and then turned her attention to the Hokage, she needed to know if she could get extra time to train her Genin, if the Chunin exams were going to be like the one she took then her little students would need every thing at there disposal to survive the test and possibly pass.

"In a week"

One week, that is all the time they had, one week for them to give there students the chance to move forwards in there career as ninja, or die. The Hokage could see the reaction from his Jonin teachers and frowned, he knew what was going trough there minds and what they were thinking, should they nominate there students? Were they even ready? Add those questions to the fact that some of them had the pressure of the clans over there heads and it was no wonder they were all filled with concern.

"Wow, that soon?"

Everyone could agree on that, it was not enough time, but there was no need to debate or to try to change this, they had little say in the matter once it was decided. The Hokage knew this as well and despite knowing it his hands were tied as well, he was only the leader of the village nothing more nothing less, if the Leaders of countries chose to do something then they would do it and that was the end of that, they simply followed orders and hoped for the best.

"It will be announce properly in 7 days, then the chunin exams will begin, for now I want you to nominate the candidates"

There was a quick look between jonins and then three step forwards, the only ones willing to nominate there students were the ones who had pressure from clans and one whom was doing it to please a particularly important clan survivor. Kakashi hatake, Asuma Sarutobi and Kurenai Yuuhi. From the crowd a man wearing green spandex frowned and closed his eyes, he knew that Kakashi had doubts about his squad and yet he was going trough with it, he was going to sing up his squad despite his doubts. Not the best call Kakashi had ever made but he had gone through with it, Gai just hoped that his long time rival wouldn't regret the decision.

(((WITH NARUTO)))

Naruto looked at the two and smiled, it seem that the sensible of the group was the blond girl, she was standing guard, but had not sense the other is arrivals, he needed to defused the situation as soon as possible, or at least he didn't want to be the one to throw the first punch. He knew how fast a situation could get out of hand, especially when there were ninjas involved, so deciding on avoiding a fight and doing things a little differently he moved once again only this time he headed straight for Temari. She seemed to be more sensible and if she had tried to calm down the other ninja, so she should do for what he had in mind.

"You seem to be the smart one, I am Naruto Uzumaki and you are?"

The girl stepped back away from him and blushed, he was inches away from her face, and despite the boy being a small little runt she couldn't help but feel a bit uneasy at having him so up close, no boy had ever been this close to her, hell all males were deadly afraid of her and her demented family. She wanted to answer him but couldn't, all she could do was squeak out a stammering reply.

"T-Temari"

The blond boy is eyes squinted until all she could see were lines were his eyes were, what followed was one of the most care free smiles she had ever seen in her life, it was as if this kid wasn't worried that he could be attack a any minute, or that he was facing two foreign ninjas.

"Oh pretty name"

Kankuro saw the small interaction and frowned, his sister was acting weird and that kid was getting on his damn nerves, the kid had completely ignored him and went straight for his sister, it didn't matter why he had done or why he had switched gears so fast but he did not like the fact that he was being ignored.

"HEY STOP HITTING ON MY SISTER!"

Naruto turned towards Kankuro and frowned and then to the blond girl named temari and frowned, that couldn't be right.

"You can't possible be related to him"

Despite herself Temari couldn't help but giggle, funny kid, not bad for a 13year old, unfortunately her bother didn't share her sense of humor, he growled and rushed towards the kid, Naruto turned towards him and side step the punch only to see an upper right kick to his head, he smirked and grabbed a hold of the leg, Kankuro frowned, the kid was fast he had dodged both of his attacks with little effort.

"We shouldn't fight this close to your sister; you might hurt her by mistake"

"Like I care"

Naruto frowned and then smiled when he saw Temari is fist hit the back Kankuro is head, bad choice of words, the ninja dropped to the ground and Naruto let go of his leg, this fight was over, the massive chakra signature he had sensed a couple of minutes ago had moved and was heading straight for them. In a blink of an eye a red haired boy stood in front of the foreign ninja and glared at him, his presence quickly change the mood of the others, Kankuro quickly stood up and tried to apologize to the red head, the blond girl did the same. This guy was clearly the leader, but he was no Genin, that was for sure. Chakra like that was no ordinary chakra either, he had a demon within him, but the kid is chakra has completely merged with the demon is own creating the chakra he was now feeling, this meant that the kid was strong, how strong that needed to be seen.

"What is your name"

Straightening up a little Naruto looked at the dark marks underneath the boy is eyes and frowned, so aside from no eye brows he was severely sleep deprived, Garra looked at the boy before him and focused on the chakra he was feeling, two chakras signatures were coming from the blond and one of them was strangely familiar, and yet one of the was frighteningly strong.

"Naruto"

"No last name?"

"Not unless you give me your name"

Turning around to leave he signaled the two siblings to follow him but just as they were a couple of feet away from naruto he stopped and turned slightly to look at the blond.

"Garra of the desert"

Naruto nodded and turned to look at Sakura and the three kids standing a few feet away from him, Konohamaru rushed towards him and began to tell him how cool he was, while his companions agreed and elated him, looking at Sakura he could see the confusion and mixed emotions on her face. Sasuke and the others had vanished as soon as the three strange Genin had left, so he didn't need to worry about the three unknown signatures and Sasuke doing something stupid, he didn't want an all out confrontation with any one right now, not when Sakura and three kids were present, and they were in the middle of the village.

Turning his attention back to Sakura he smiled and waved at her, the girl simply frowned and rushed towards him, pushing Konohamaru a little to the right before Sakura crashed into him, enveloping him in a bone crushing hug, returning the small embrace he frowned when he heard a small growl escaping from the girl is throat.

"YOU ARE A JERK!"

A slap resonated and Naruto felt a hot sting on his cheek, that had hurt, but he deserved it, he had not spoken to them in a while after all and he had not even bothered to tell them that he was alive. He simply smiled that stupid smile and rubbed his cheek. What came after was something he didn't expect, Sakura Haruno the girl who would berate and beat him was actually hugging him, crying and showing actual concern for him.

"Ok I deserved that"

He smiled and hugged her back, hearing his words the girl pulled back and shock him back and forward, that is all he had to say?! How dare he be nonchalant about this, she had believed him to be dead and he was just smiling and acting normal.

"YOU'RE DAMN RIGHT YOU DID!"

She stopped shaking him and he just smiled at her, scratched the back of his head and winked.

"I sorry, I just didn't know what to do"

Sakura could see that he was really taken back by her concern, something about that surprised her; she knew that he was an orphan but still to show that lack of reaction towards her display of affection had really confused her. Was she that horrible to him? Was he so surprising that she would be concern for his well being? Just how did Naruto see her?

"Well what happened to you!? I was worried sick, you just…"

Despite being surprised by the lack of reaction on his part, she was still curious, Naruto smiled and placed a hand over her shoulder, the girl was still upset and it was clear that she needed some kind of comfort in return. Another hug would be too much and he didn't feel like getting punched of whacked in the head, so a simple hand over her shoulder should be enough.

"Hey-hey its okay, I'm okay"

He could see the genuine concern on the girl is face, but he was never really good at comforting people or making them feel better, so he did what he always did he smiled his goofy smile yet again and tried to shake it off. Sakura seeing that the subject was close for now smiled and tried to steer the conversation away from what had happened. but before she could talk Kakashi appeared on top of the fence wall surrounding the area, along side him Sasuke looked to be annoyed while he had had watched the interaction he himself was curious as to what had happened, he couldn't just come out and ask the blond, not after the warning Kakashi gave him, Naruto turned towards him and smiled .

"Your late sensei"

Kakashi smiled at Sakura and then looked towards the blue wearing boy only to see Naruto is eyes locked on him, Sasuke noticing this little exchange wondered if any thing had happened between the two. Kakashi for the most part seem to not care about the blond is presence; but for Naruto it was a whole different story, he was guarded and nervous. He knew the Hokage had spoken to Kakashi as to what had happened in that conversation it was still a mystery, it was weird know that the Sharingan user was no longer going to be his teacher, but it was for the best.

"Sorry I was saving the village from an alien invasion"

Sasuke is eye twitched and Sakura glared menacingly at her teacher, the blond of the group how ever just looked at the pieces of paper on the man is hand and smiled the application for the Chunin exam forms. it seem that it was finally time for them to enter into the test, Kakashi noticing that his students weren't doing any thing decided to wave the pieces of paper in there faces. After explaining what they had to do he waved and vanished in a puff of smoke, the three remaining Genin looked at one another before walking in different directions, all except for one.

Sakura looked at Sasuke and Naruto with a frown on her face, this is not how a team should act, but then what could she say she wasn't sure Naruto would listen to her any more and Sasuke would just ignore her and insult her, so why even bother. Besides she was sure that things would work themselves out in the end, they were a team after all, but in the mean time Naruto still had plenty of things to answer for. Rushing towards the direction the blond had taken off too, she was filled with a new determination to find out what had happened to Naruto. When she rushed towards him she stops and wonders what she should ask, of if she even has the right to be demanding answers from him, she has not been the best of friend to him, and despite having some close moments with the blond she still had a long road to walk in calling herself his friend, turning around she decided to figure out how to get close to the blond, how to be a better friend and teammate.

As for the blond he was currently trying to avoid a certain red eye woman, he had sensed her chakra signature since Kakashi had left them with there little sign up sheets, she was trying to be discrete and was doing a good job of concealing herself; to bad she was using genjustu. The illusion was emitting a low level chakra signature that made her stick out like a sore thumb, heading for a clearing towards the raining field he can sense that she is dropping her illusion and has decided to face him.

"Can I help you?"

Kurenai smiled and nodded, she had a few questions for the blond, starting on how he was able to freak out Shino so much, the usual calm and collected kid had been troubled by something Naruto had done.

**FLASH BACK**

Seeing the hawk in the sky made her frown, the signal was sent already? It was to soon to be going into exams, but if the signal was sent then she needed to help her Genin become stronger than they already were, as far it went they were not ready for this. The chunin exams were hard, and depending on who participated they could become deadly, reaching the clearing in the training ground they were using she spotted her team and frowned, it seem that Shino had gathered the others.

"Training exercise over?"

She was about to call it off herself, but for Shino to do this, it was out of character, way out of what Shino usually did, looking at the other she could see the confusion on there faces as well.

"Bug boy wanted us to come meet you here, something about Naruto"

Kiba grumbled out and glared at an emotionless Shino while Hinata is eyes widen in surprise, Shino wanted to talk about Naruto? Kurenai raised an eye brow and turned towards the bug user, it seem that Naruto had startled him more than she had originally believed.

"Oh?"

The small inquire made Shino take a deep breath, how to tell them what he had witnessed and what his little friends had confirmed, the fact of the matter was that he had witnessed something incredible and that extraordinary thing was that this incredible thing had been done by the idiot of the class. How would they believe when he told them that?

"With the proper application of chakra can one defy gravity?"

The question took the three other members of the squad by surprised, of all the things Shino was going to ask that was one thing they had not seen coming, taken back by the question Kurenai is hesitation made Shino frown, it was not that hard of a question was it?

"Are you nuts? No way ninjas can fly!"

Kiba laughed out loud and Hinata looked at Kurenai, the woman seem to be lost in thought, was it possible? Sure ninja techniques were designed to defy known laws of physics but to actually defy gravity with chakra?

"If it were possible one would need a massive amount of chakra and exceptional control over it"

Kiba turned towards his teacher and gaped in surprised, was she serious? Hinata for the most part was simply lost, Shino had wanted to talk about Naruto and now he had asked an irrelevant question, were they connected? Shino nodded, so he was not insane a human would defy gravity with the proper training, but what kind of training?

"W-why t-the q-question?"

Hinata looked at Shino who took a deep breath and closed his eyes, this situation was far more complicated than he had first believe it to be, the whole situation was difficult to understand and accept at face value, how did Naruto learn that the technique? Who had taught it to him and more how in the world did the lowest ranking Genin in history had such a massive amount of chakra?

"N-Naruto was flying"

If the last question had surprised them this statement had definitely made them take a step back, Naruto the loser, the clown of the class had mastered such a technique, it was impossible, there was no way that he could do what Shino claimed he could do. Kiba laughed out loud, there was no way that the dead last of the class could do such a technique, it was impossible.

"Are you sure?"

Kurenai is voice was dead serious, she had a determined look on her face and the other all seem to understand that what Shino was saying was something serious, Kiba immediately shuts up and looks at his teacher with wide eyes, she can't be serious can she?

"Sensei?"

Seeing the reaction from her students Kurenai knew that she had made a mistake in showing such interest, not every one knew about Naruto's special circumstances, especially not the genin, taking a deep breath she closed her eyes and decided to reveal something of Naruto.

"Naruto, theoretically can fly if he has enough control over his chakra"

Kiba frowned and then shakes his head, that couldn't be right could it?

"T-that W-would mean t-that naruto h-has an e-enormous a-amount of chakra in his system"

Hinata spoke and Kurenai nodded, she could reveal that much about the boy, and it was the only reasonable explanation she could give them with out going into to much of an explanation.

"If that is true…"

Shino looked pensive, so it was true, Naruto could fly.

"However, the kid's chakra control is lacking, so what Shino saw could have been a massive outburst of chakra that propelled Naruto through a long distance, like when we jump only at a grander scale"

"But teacher he…he explained how he did it…"

Shino was no satisfied, he knew that Kurenai could be right, but what he had seen was not what she had described, he also had Naruto is explanation and had felt the massive chakra output he had been giving off, if it was just a jump then why did Naruto continued to propelled himself with his chakra? It didn't make any sense.

"Further explanations will have to wait, I been summoned to the Hokage is tower"

With out further explanation she vanished and the three Genin were left to ponder about the blond Genin.

**END FLASHBACK**

"I felt your presence in the training grounds, Shino said you flew?"

Naruto smirked, it seem that the bug user couldn't keep his mouth shut, fine by him he was getting pretty tired pretending to be the idiot of the class and always having to hold back, it was time he unleashed a little of what he was truly capable off.

"I can."

"H-how is that possible?"

"I can do a lot more than fly, but you can all see what I am capable of once I entered the chunin exams"

Kurenai frowned at him, she remembered how there last encountered had ended and she didn't like the threat he had give to her student, looking back on everything she zero in on Kakashi's earlier mood and knew why the copy cat was so worried. Naruto had never given anything away, all those years he was hiding and now that she saw him, truly look at him she could see the difference between the boy he had pretended to be and the boy that was in front of her right now.

What else could he be hiding? How strong and dangerous was he really? Naruto noticing the way she was looking at him smiled, it was time to show them that they were all underestimating him. They all believed him weak when he was anything but; crossing his arms he decided to take a page out of his mentor is book and put a scowl on. Vegeta had taught him well on how to hide his true self behind a mask of indifference and arrogance, to keep himself hidden from every one and to only show his true self to those whom he deem trust worthy.

"I saw you once before, is your strength due to the fox within you?"

Naruto is face darkened, was that what every one believed? They all gave credit to the fox and not to him, they all believed that he was nothing but a puppet, one who was controlled by the demon within him, smiling sadly at the woman he took a deep breath and turned his back to her.

"You saw what I was like before right?"

Kurenai froze and felt a shiver ran down her spine, she remembered the clawed hands, red eyes and killer intent emanating from the boy, how every fiber of his being screamed of killing and of blood lust.

"Y-yes"

She whispered.

"What you saw then, that was the fox, what you see now is me, but be warned that even I have my limits and I am more than tempted to let the fox come out and play"

Naruto felt the chakra increase in her body and smiled, she was getting ready to tell him, to tell him of how she would stop him if he ever did let the fox out, but he had heard that speech through out his life and he didn't feel like listening to her, smiling he focused and decided to show her a glimpse at what his power truly was.

"If you…"

She froze, all of Kurenai is senses were going haywire she was emanating chakra and killer intent but what Naruto had unleashed had completely taken he by surprise, her whole body was shivering and screaming at her to run away, to just go and hide from the boy before her. The chakra level was massive but what was worse was the fact that he was holding back, it was as if she had been standing before a live volcano and she was burning from the seer magnitude of the heat. That couldn't be chakra, no one could posses that kind of power, what ever this kid was he was no ordinary human boy.

Standing before her the blond was glowing, his whole body was covered in chakra or what seem to be chakra, his hair was swaying with the force of the energy and while all around him small pebbles from the ground began to rise upwards while shattering once they got near his body, he was no ordinary boy nor demon he was something else entirely.

"I have heard the speech, I don't care what your warning or threats might be, I just showed you a glimpse at my power, not the fox is power but mine so that you can see for yourself what your students will be facing"

"W-what are you…w-what is that power?"

"I don't know, I am still figuring out what I have become but I am no threat…not yet"

The message was delivered and as the boy vanished Naruto slumped down on her knees gasping for air, what had she witnessed? Just what was Naruto?

Continued….


	10. Chapter 10

**TEACHER**

**Chapter X**

"**THE CONFRONTATION"**

"**A genin? How can you be so sure?"**

**The shadow asked and the man with the round glasses shock his head in the negative, he wasn't sure, he couldn't be sure, but every thing pointed that he could become a danger to there well laid plans.**

"**I cant, but he was demonstrated skills far beyond a normal genin, he is always holding back always hiding, the perfect little ninja"**

**The shadow glared at the man, this was the whole point of him being in the village, he was supposed to keep taps on potential dangers to him and to his plans, so how did this get pass him? How could he not know of a genin with the abilities of a jounin?**

"**Why didn't you take notice of him until now?"**

"**Nothing in Mizuki is reports said any thing about him, they were all normal or below normal, not indication that he had any skill as a ninja"**

"**So this little genin fooled every one…interesting"**

"**What do we do?"**

"**You take care of him"**

**The shadow vanished and the teen with the round rimmed glasses smirked, it was clear that he could not kill the little blond, but as far as beating him to near death was another story.**

"**As you wish lord Orochimaru"**

**Kabuto smirked and vanished into the night.**

**Ever since the chunin exams had been announced Iruka couldn't help but feel worried, there was something bothering him, Kakashi is lack of concern for his student is well being was one thing, but the other was Naruto is change, was different some how and he didn't think it was due to Kakashi is training or tutelage, it was something completely different. The girl he was with, Haku had been with him ever since he had returned from that mission, every time Naruto ventured into the village he was with her, always with her, then there was the fact that Naruto was seen less and less around the village, something was wrong with team Kakashi. The couple of times he had seen the copy cat he had been in that accursed bar drinking with the other Jonin telling them of how much Sasuke had progressed in his training.**

**He had spoken with Kakashi only a hand full of times and the copy cat always eluded his questions, and reassure him that every thing was fine within team seven, that there was no need to worry, but he knew better, he knew that something was really wrong with the team, speaking with Naruto was no different, he just assured him that every thing was all right and to not worry, that he could handle what ever came to him, but Iruka knew better, he had taught Naruto in the academy after all. Having no success with either of Naruto or Kakashi the Chunin decided to drown his sorrows in his usual bar, but when he entered it he saw the copy cat drinking away and chatting happily with the other Jonin, turning round he decided that maybe tonight would not be such a good night to drown his sorrows.**

"**Hey Iruka!"**

**It would seem that he had no choice but to join the others now, seeing as how Kakashi waved at him and signaled him to go over to there table, not wanting to be rude Iruka made his way towards the table and promptly sat down, even though he wanted to forget about his troubles and just down his worry in a nice bottle of sake, he couldn't do it when Kakashi was right beside him, complaining about his star pupil.**

"**You know Kakashi, there is more than one student in your squad"**

**He didn't mean to sound bitter, but how could he not be bitter when he saw how much Kakashi was focusing on Sasuke, the copy cat merely eye smiled at him and took a sip of his sake. Despite what Iruka thought he had tried to look after his other students but Naruto was a hard subject to approach and Sakura was off doing her own thing, all the girl would say was that it would be a surprise.**

"**I know, but they have made plans to train on there own"**

"**Oh?"**

**This came from Kurenai who was quite intrigued as to what kind of training Sakura and Naruto would be doing on there own, the blond boy had frightened her to no end, hell he had given her the perfect motivation for her to put her students to some extra training.**

"**Don't ask me, Naruto is on his own little world and Sakura said she wanted it to be a surprised"**

"**You seem to be taking this to lightly, at first I thought maybe Iruka was exaggerating about your lack of concern, but now, are you hiding something Kakashi?"**

**Asuma Sarutobi smiled and patted the copy ninja on the back, the Cyclops just smiled and shock his head, he was not hiding any thing, Kurenai was aware of Naruto and was Asuma, to a lesser extent obviously but still he knew that he should be weary of the boy.**

"**I am not hiding any thing, Naruto will be more than fine on his own, as for sakura, she wouldn't tell me were who she got to train her and I want to respect her whishes"**

"**I still feel like, you should focus on Naruto that boy…"**

**Kurenai shivered when she remembered the power he showed, how he calm and collected he was, it was as if he knew that no one could stand in his way, that what ever shinobi stood against him would perish, he was more demonic that human. Iruka frowned, it seem that there were some people who still viewed Naruto as the demon and not the container.**

"**I am disappointed Kurenai, I thought you knew better"**

"**Oh don't defend him Iruka, if you had seen what I saw…that kid is not normal"**

**Asuma saw the interaction between all of them and shock his head, Kakashi was just nodding in understanding and Iruka was clenching a sake bottle so hard it could shattered any second, he wondered how a simple night out could turn into this. It was clear that the tension around them was because of the up coming chnnin exam, Iruka had a right to be worried about his ex-student and Kakashi should show a bit more sympathy to the man, he had taken Iruka is spot as Naruto is instructor so her should at least reassured the Iruka that Naruto would be all right, but he was doing nothing of the sort and now Kurenai was adding to the fire. He had never thought that she would discriminate the boy, none of her behavior showed that she dislike the boy, but now it seem as if she was not only afraid of him, but was as distrusting as the idiot villagers that hated the boy. Looking at them he could see that Kakashi was not that different from Kurenai, he was weary of his own student.**

"**I think you guys exaggerated too much"**

"**We do not, that boy is…"**

"**That Boy Is what?"**

**A cold chill ran down every one is backs, from the shadows in the deepest parts of the bar an all to familiar voice came out, then it was followed by a couple of foot steps and the darkness receded back revealing an all to familiar figure, long brown trench coat, fist net shirt and a micro mini skirt, sake bottle in hand the woman glared at the ones sitting in the bar stall. They were speaking about the boy as if he was an oddity, like he wasn't even human.**

"**Anko…we"**

**Kurenai smiled apologetically to her friend unfortunately Anko was having none of that, the sake was messing with her tonight and while normally she wouldn't give a damn about the kid, tonight reminder her that she was not the only one that was viewed like an oddity, like something that should have never existed.**

"**I know what you meant, you are all afraid of the big bad fox lying within him, what you don't realize is that that kid has every right to seek his revenge against this village, hell if I had the power I guarantee you that a lot of pricks in this village would be lying six feed under"**

"**Its not the same Anko"**

**Kakashi wanted to control the situation, to at least let her know that what they meant didn't applied to her, but before he could continue iruka placed a hand on his shoulder and shock his head. **

"**Your are all the same"**

**The purple hair woman walked past them and straight out of the bar, Kurenai rushed after her and Asuma grunted in annoyance, this was great, the whole evening had gone to hell and all because of one little kid who was just sitting home enjoying himself with that pretty girl of his. **

**Iruka looked at them and frowned they were all fools, they were overconfident and so sure of there skills as teacher, but they were all making a huge mistake, being a teacher meant so much more than just showing off your students, it meant worrying about them and about how well they could handle all situations not just some.**

"**See what you did"**

**Kakashi looked at Iruka who was now half way trough the exit of the bar.**

"**I hope you don't regret your decision, I hope that your students are as prepared as you believed them to be"**

**Iruka saw what he had seen, they were all competing with each other, the Jonin were competing against one another, they weren't looking for there students is best interest, they just didn't what to be showed up or demonstrate there lack of confidence in the members of there teams, Asuma and Kurenai were pressured by the clans to make there students take the test, even Kakashi knew that he had to submit his squad, how else was the last Uchiha supposed to show his might. This whole things was a huge mistake, the squads had no battle experience, no field experience and still needed time to developed there skills, time there Jonin instructors were not giving them, closing his eyes Maito Gai hoped that no one died out there.**

**Naruto looked at the building in front of him and smiled, trough those doors was his chance to test his skills against some of the best ninja in the world, a whole bunch of ninjas would be there, who knows what kind of fights would await him once he crossed those doors. Taking a deep breath he composed himself as best he could and smirked when he felt both Sakura and Sasuke is chakra signatures getting close.**

"**So you waited for us, I thought you would have gone inside already"**

"**Sorry to disappoint Sasuke, but something tells me this is a team thing also"**

**Sasuke smirked and nodded, he remembered what Kakashi had said the first time they had battle together, how they had put them in a three person squad for a reason, this test seem to be something similar to what Kakashi had indicated to them back there, which meant they had to be together for this.**

"**So….were all ok?'**

"**Like I said before just don't get in my way"**

**Sasuke grunted and rushed ahead of them, Naruto simply looked at Sakura and nodded, yeah they were all right for now that is, Sasuke kept his distance from him and Sakura outright avoided them, what a good team they made. Walking inside the building he immediately felt a whole bunch of chakra signatures that were pretty strong, what was worrying him how ever was the fast that there was chakra covering the door way to one of the room as well as the wall around it, remembering what Haku told him he smirked when realized a genjutsu had been cast. **

"**Genjustu…we should"**

**His warning was cut short when a spandex wearing kid was sent to the ground, apparently some one making sure that there illusion was not discovered, what was weird though was that the green spandex kid didn't emit any chakra signature, it was as if he was completely devoid of it. Looking at Sasuke he was about to tell him to just ignore it and move on but then a girl rushed in to defend the spandex wearing kid, she was a year or two older than him, looking at her he smiled when he saw the fire in her eyes. **

"**Please let us through!"**

**The guy guarding the door raised his fist and then slammed it downwards to strike at the girl, she could have moved but didn't and the slap connected sending her to the ground. She had left herself be hit, he smirked when he saw that she and her the other boy had suffer no damage, this was all a rouse he was about to tell Sasuke to just back off but then he noticed the him walking towards the aggressors, the dark haired boy apparently had to show off his skills in front of others, Sakura noticing Naruto shake his head and begin to walk away from the commotion wondered what had gotten the blond so upset. **

"**Naruto were are you going?"**

"**The idiot failed to get to point of this whole test"**

"**Huh?"**

**She was abut to asked him what he meant when she saw Naruto freeze in his tracks, they didn't see the genjutsu, none of the ones were here were aware that this was a set up, Naruto turned towards the people that were gathered outside of the room and frowned, all of them were being fooled by a simple illusion, turning towards Sasuke he saw him about to open his mouth.**

"**Let…UMPH!"**

**In a blink of an eye Naruto was beside him his hand on Sasuke is mouth, his eyes locked with Sasuke and then shock his head.**

"**We're leaving"**

**Sasuke granted and struggled with all his might but all he could do was cause a ruckus while Naruto simply dragged him away from the rest. Sakura and the others could only look on as the last of the Uchiha clan was dragged away from them, the blond whom was dragging him away was doing so with little effort. Team ten could only watched as the rocky of the year was quickly held in a head lock by the dead last of the class, and much to there surprised all the mighty Uchiha could do was struggle and flap his arms all around the place trying to pull away from the blond. **

"**Naruto!"**

"**Come on Sakura we're leaving!"**

**His voice had changed, instead of being the normal way it was commanding, as if he had taken the role of the leader instead of the back up guy. **

**The test had just started and they were all ready fighting Sakura looked at the scene and followed Naruto to were ever he was going, but before she left she saw the green spandex boy and the girl with the small buns in her head getting up and walking away, they had followed the signal of a third boy, who had signaled his friends to following him.**

"**What's the matter Neji?"**

"**Nothing we are done here, we have caused enough of a distraction we should go to the third floor"**

**Lee wanted to object, but he had to follow trough on is plan, there was no way that he was going to spoil every thing they had worked on just to show off in front of the pink hair girl, there would be enough time to do that later. Leaving the area and arriving before he doors that would lead them to the original exam, once there Naruto is hold on the Uchiha loosened and the boy pulled away from him, the blond immediately knew what was coming next. The black hair boy rushed towards him and grabbed him the collar demanded an explanation. **

"**Relax would you"**

"**You ever do that again I am"**

"**You will do nothing! The test began the minute we entered this building, are you stupid as well as arrogant? That illusion was placed there for a reason!"**

**Sakura looked at the two and wondered when the fist were going to start flying, Naruto was holding Sasuke is wrist and by the way Sasuke was beginning to flinch she knew that the blond was tired of the Uchiha and his attitude, something had snapped in the blond and she knew that unless Sasuke backed off the were going to get into a fight right here and now. The Uchiha flinched when Naruto is hand tightened around his wrist but pride demanded that he be the one who handled the situation, and remind Naruto just who was in charge of this team.**

"**I don't care about that! you ever place your hands on me again and I will kill you"**

**Sasuke is second hand rushed towards Naruto is neck but it stopped when Naruto applied more pressure to his wrist, and his other hand rushed towards the Uchiha is neck, Sasuke quickly found himself being lifted off the ground and slamming into one of the side walls, grunting in pain all he do was watch the cold blue eyes of his teammate. Sakura looked worry but before she could intervene or do any thing Kakashi appeared. **

"**Your attitude hasn't gotten any better has it"**

**Kakashi appeared beside the two and pulled Naruto is hand away from the Uchiha, Sasuke glared at him and then at Naruto, but the blond had already pulled his hand away from Kakashi, the two were in a glaring match with one another, but then Kakashi is visible eye turned towards him and he frowned, the reprimand was towards him. Sasuke glared at the two and turned his back towards them, he couldn't argue Naruto is point and with Kakashi there he knew he had to hold his tongue back, who knows what the Jonin would do if he saw them bickering like this. **

"**So what is this all about?"**

**Sakura glanced from Naruto to Sasuke and saw that neither of them wanted to explain what had happened, taking a deep breath she began to tell him what was going on, Kakashi looked surprised at the blond boy is actions and at Sasuke is lack of self control. Sure he knew Sasuke was a bit arrogant but to go this far? He seriously needed to consider curving that attitude of his. **

"**You should be more discreet when it comes to this kind situations Sasuke, as for you Naruto I suggest….Naruto?"**

**He turned towards were the blond was standing a couple of minutes ago only to see him calmly walking towards Gai's genin squad. **

"**Hey you in the green spandex"**

"**M-me?"**

**Lee glanced at his friends who were all looking at the blond with mixed emotions; turning once again to the blond he gave a small wave and smiled awkwardly.**

"**Yeah, mind if I ask how you're doing it?"**

**A look of confusion was plastered on the three genin is faces.**

"**Leave them alone Naruto"**

**Kakashi spoke and Naruto ignored him, he wanted to see how the green spandex boy was hiding his chakra so well, after all the practice he had done he couldn't never fully hide his chakra from the others.**

"**The name is Naruto Uzumaki, and I was wondering how you hide your chakra signature so well?"**

**Neji smirked and Tenten frowned, Lee for the most part just chuckled nervously, Naruto seeing that they were upset about something shoot them his friendliest smiled and scratched the back of his head. **

"**Ah I didn't mean to pry or any thing, if it's a special jutsu or something"**

"**N-no, it is quite all right, I don't have a chakra signature because I don't use chakra"**

"**You don't? wow that is impressive!"**

**How could it not be impressive, a boy who was participating in the chunin exams with no use of his chakra, that was pretty damn impressive. Lee could see that he was genuinely interested and surprised about his condition and while others tended to mock him or make fun of him this boy was actually impressed with him.**

"**Impressive?"**

**Both Neji and Sasuke exclaimed, what Naruto was saying made no sense at all.**

"**You became a ninja despite not using chakra, and now your participating in the chunin exams, now I am really excited!"**

**Tenten smiled at the boy and at his genuine interest in Lee, she always saw how others treated lee and how even Neji was always undermining him and belittling him just because he didn't have use of a chakra network, but now this kid had put a new spin on the whole thing and she was glad that Lee was finally beginning to see just how special he truly was.**

"**Excited?"**

**Neji glared at Naruto and Naruto smirked, oh this guy had some chakra on him.**

"**Yeah I might get to fight Lee in this test"**

**Those were the words that ignited the fire of youth within Lee, the boy immediately rushed towards Naruto and smiled, he was always looking for a strong rival, Kakashi was Naruto is sensei and just as Gai was Kakashi is rival he would become Naruto is rival, it was perfect! Naruto saw the kid is eyes begin to flame up and flames erupted from behind him.**

"**I ROCK LEE EXTEND AN INVITATION TO YOU!…."**

**Then just as suddenly as it had come all of it had left, the boy is intensity and flames vanished into nothingness, the boy looked at him and smiled apologetically.**

"**What is your name?"**

"**Ah…I am Naruto Uzumaki"**

"**Rock Lee!"**

**Naruto smiled and shock his hand, he seem like a good guy, but just as he was about to pull his hand away rock lee is hand tightened on his own and once again fire began to surround his body, as flames erupted from his eyes. **

"**I ROCK LEE EXTEND AND INVITATION TO YOU NARUTO UZUMAKI!"**

**Naruto looked at lee is two friends and saw them standing a few feet away from him and lee, it seem that despite being friends with lee they were still not a costumed to his mood swings. Turning towards the others he could see that this was as new to them as it was to him, Kakashi was covering his face with his book, whole Lee is teacher had tears running down his face, what surprised him was that both Sasuke and Sakura were to shocked to move.**

"**Ok…"**

"**BECOME MY ETERNAL RIVAL!"**

**Naruto smiled and raised an eyebrow, Kakashi sweat dropped and shock his head, like teacher like student.**

"**Sure I guess, what do we have to do?"**

"**FIGHT ME RIGHT HERE!"**

**With out a second warning Lee pulled on Naruto is arm and sent him flying straight towards the second floor, Naruto frowned and then twisted in mid air landing on his feet, not soon after Lee follow him by jumping downwards himself. Naruto was surprised when the boy immediately went after him, as soon as Lee is legs had connected with the floor he had sprung towards him faster than he had seen. A right hand punch rushed towards him, ducking underneath the punch he saw a knee heading straight for his face, the punch was a distraction, not bad.**

"**Got ya!"**

"**Nope!"**

**Naruto is hand came straight down on lee is knee holding off the attack, Lee is eyes widen and then smiled, he was good, he had seen his attacks and had countered them, but he still had a longs ways to go, his left hand formed a fist and it came crashing down on Naruto, only for the blond to twist away from it and punch, his whole body twisted and soon lee found himself being attack by an upper kick that was heading straight for his head. Lee jumped upwards and accelerated his speed; it was time to see what Naruto was made of.**

"**Leaf spinning wind!"**

**Naruto frowned when his feet connected with the ground, Lee was fast, he had not moved side ways or dodge the kick instead he had jumped upwards and now he was directing a straight down frontal attack, he smiled and raised his hand to block it.**

"**Impossible"**

**His kick had been caught, from the third floor of the room Neji is eyes narrowed, there was no way that some one could be as fast as Lee, even he had trouble in his sparring matched, yet this blond boy had caught one of Lee's speed attack with little effort, beside Neji and Tenten was stunned. She had seen how hard Lee and Gai trained and had seen with her own eyes what one of there kicks did, yet the blond kid just caught it with out so much as a broken bone, if he could hold off one of Lee's kicks and move as fast as he then this boy was something else. **

"**How did he do that?"**

"**I don't know, but he shouldn't have been able to catch that kick"**

"**So my eternal rivals has trained his student well"**

**Neji and Tenten followed the sound of the voice and saw there teacher standing beside Kakashi, Gai looked at Kakashi and narrowed his eyes, his words had bothered the copy cat and by the way he had reacted to how Naruto had been able to catch Lee is kick he had been not been expecting Naruto to be that fast. It seem that Kakashi was as surprised as his student were at Naruto is abilities which meant one thing.**

"**Or perhaps not?'**

**Kakashi is eyes hardened, and Gai frowned, this Kakashi wasn't the Kakashi he knew, he was looking at his student as if he was some kind of creature, should he not show pride when it came to his student? He should be proud that the boy was flourishing so well and yet all he could see from the copy nin was concern, Gai turned towards the battle and saw Naruto pushed Lee away from him, Lee doing a back flip landed on his feet and began to untie his bandaged arms.**

"**Lee!"**

**When he saw lee unbinding his hands Gai knew what his young pupil had in mind, jumping from the third floor his fist high on the air he rushed towards lee, his fist rushed towards Lee but just as it was about to connect he felt a hand intercept it. Naruto had jumped in front of the two and had managed to catch Gai is fist with is hand, what surprised him the most was the fact that Gai is punch had not hurt Naruto, Gai could see it in Naruto is face, there was no discomfort no pain, nothing, that was impossible, even Lee felt his slightest punches and yet Naruto didn't even registered them.**

"**WOAH! Why are you attacking us!"**

**Lee looked at Naruto and the detained fist mere inches from his face, as soon as He had heard Gai is voice he knew he was in trouble, but he had been unable to noticed his teacher is movements or even see were his teacher was, but some how Naruto had been able to see and prevent the disciplinary punch from connecting.**

"**How did you move so fast!"**

"**I am this fast"**

**The simple answer left the green beast of Konoha frozen, there was no deception on his voice no hint at any thing but the truth, the blond boy was that fast and by the way he felt on his hand he was equally strong to match up against himself. **

"**I see…but you see my most youthful friend I am not attacking you I am simply punishing lee for using a forbidden technique!"**

**FLASHBACK~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~**

**Naruto looked at Goku and frowned, as much as he wanted to understand what the man was doing he was still having a hard time grasping this ability, insight, that is what he was missing, he knew it because every one of his mentors had told him so. He jumped to conclusions way to soon and reacted to situations with no self control, his sort fuse and lack of understanding with his surroundings made him a power house with no control. Goku glanced at Naruto and frowned, the kid had lived a rough life, and it was only going to get harder as he grew up, he could blame the kid for being on his guard most of the time.**

"**You understand that you have to read an opponent and his intentions right?"**

"**Yeah, but it's really hard… I try to sense, to discern what your intentions or any one is intentions are but I can't… I am never going to get this am I?"**

"**Oh I don't know, maybe with time you might just remember that there is no point in over reacting to a situation"**

"**Yeah I know, I have to read it, studied and then attack accordingly but how do I do that in the middle of a battle?"**

"**It has to become a second nature to you, but it will be hard"**

"**I know I…"**

**END FLASH BACK~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~**

**He should of know better, he had sense no ill will coming from Gai closing his eyes he wondered what Goku would think if he had seen him react the way he did. All those training sessions and he was still having trouble figuring out people. He jumped before he thought things trough, he needed to focus on this chunin exam or else some one could get hurt. As for Lee, Naruto raised an eye brown and turned towards him, but all Lee did was smile sheepishly at him and scratched the back of his head. **

"**You were going to use a forbidden technique on me?"**

"**My apologies Naruto… I was exited"**

**The blond raised an eye brow and shock his head, lee was one hell of a character all right, he turned towards Maito Gai and simply allowed him to continue on disciplining his pupil for using that technique, looking upwards he could see Sakura and Sasuke already awaiting him, with a wave he said good bye to Lee and Gai before jumping beside his friends. Once they had entered the examination room Gai and lee followed his exampled and joined both Tenten and Neji, the two quickly shoot there sensei a quizzical look to which he responded with a small nod. **

"**That boy, he is stronger faster and more able then you my youthful students"**

**That froze the three, if Gai was telling them what they think he was telling them then Naruto could be a serious problem to them.**

"**What do we do?"**

**Gai smiled at Lee and gave him his good guy posse.**

"**Do your best and do not worry, with him on your side you will come out of this alive!"**

**Gai smiled and gave his team the thumps up pose, once his team disappeared trough the door the others had gone trough, Gai exchanged a quick glance with Kakashi and smirked. **

"**You should have more faith in your pupil Kakashi"**

**~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~INSIDE THE ROOM~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~**

**Naruto smiled and looked at the gathering with interest, this test was getting better and better, chakra signatures were all over the place and even though the majority were weak ones, there were few who got his interest, the red head from the san had a very unique chakra signature and it was strong, stronger than any thing he had ever felt before. Looking around he couldn't wait to test out his moves out on some of the gathered ninja, this was the perfect time to show them all what he could really do. **

"**Wipe that smile of your face loser"**

**Sasuke smirked and looked at Kiba, the dog boy had not change one bit, Naruto simply glared at him and shock his head dog boy never learned his lesson, his teammates came up from behind him and soon the graduating genin teams were gathered around them. **

"**Remember what I told your teacher Kiba"**

**Shino raised and eyebrow and looked at the blond closely, his wore drove was not the only thing that had changed, his allies were screaming at him a warning about the blond, something had changed sure the changes were not visible to the naked eye but he could see that Naruto was not the same as before. Glancing at Sakura and Sasuke he could see little to no change, Sakura was the same and while Sasuke is chakra had increased he was not the one whom his allies were worried about.**

"**A-akamaru? I-I t-think s-something I-is w-wrong w-with h-him k-kiba"**

**Kiba looked at Hinata and then turned towards the puppy on his head, naruto raised and eye brow at the whimpering animal.**

"**I think your dog has worms Kiba"**

"**SHUT IT!, Akamaru? W-whats wrong boy?"**

**Kiba frowned at his partner, he was shaking and whimpering while trying to get into his jacket, something had spooked him, looking at his surroundings he could see why the puppy would be scared, but that didn't make sense, he was fine a couple of minutes ago, so why was he so freaked out now? **

"**You know, you guys shouldn't make such a commotion"**

**The genin's head turned towards the sound of the voice, a teen with round glasses and silver head smiled at them, what surprised them the most was that he was quite friendly despite them being a competition together, hell he was even sharing information with them, and as the genins welcomed him into there fold Naruto stared hard at the teen, something was not right with him. He had learned his lesson from before and had remembered to focused his senses more sharply, which is why they were screaming at him to watch out for this guy, something about him was not right. **

"**N-naruto-Kun? A-are y-you o-okay?"**

"**No, something is up with that guy, I don't know what but…."**

**His face turned away from Kabuto and Hinata followed the blond is movement, what surprised her was that she had not even sense or felt any kind of movement and yet Naruto had detected the attack before any of the others, as the three shadows rushed towards them she continue to observe Naruto and noticed that he was had his complete attention focused on the attackers and the victim. **

"**He knows they are coming… what is this"**

**His whisper made her fidget, this Naruto was not the Naruto she knew, something had happened to him and she didn't know what. But before she could dwell on those thought the three shadows jumped towards the silver haired teen throwing a punch.**

"**KABUTO!"**

**Sakura screeched and Naruto frowned, the attack had not connected but something else had happened, he didn't know what or how but that attack was dangerous. Hinata gasped when she saw the Kabuto evade the attack only for him to fall to the ground seconds later, turning towards Naruto she could see that he was not surprised in the least about what had happened. **

"**N-Naruto?"**

"**The exam is starting"**

"**W-what?"**

**But before she could continue the front of the class room exploded revealing there examiner, she looked at Naruto who just smiled at her and winked. **

"**Take care out there ok"**

"**Y-yes…"**

**1st**** test was a piece of cake, the old switch the test with the guys sitting beside you trick had worked for him, but now he was worried, that crazy lady was telling them the dangers of the forest and was even given them papers which would make there deaths totally legal, looking at the paper he couldn't help but wonder about the others, were they ready for this? Had they gotten stronger? Glancing around he couldn't help but feel exited about the prospect of fighting some one strong. **

"**PAY ATTENTION!"**

**Anko had been explaining the finer details about the second test when she saw him looking around with a stupid grind on his face, was the kid exited to be here? She had just told them that there lives were in danger and he was grinning like an idiot, frowning she threw a kunai towards him but even distracted his skills were sharp as the blond kid managed to catch the kunai and throw it right back at her. **

"**I am paying attention lady jeez"**

**Anko smirked and closed her eyes, stupid brat was pretty weird, she liked that. She had seen the blond kid talking to Mini Gai, he was exited and chatting up a storm, what surprised her the most was how relax he seem, it was as if he had no worries what so over.**

"**Okay then brat, you done with the paper or what?"**

"**Yeah, here ya go!"**

**Just as he handed her the paper she saw him drop his guard and decide to make a lasting impression on him, quickly moving behind him she placed a kunai on his throat and scratched his left cheek.**

"**Got ya"**

**Naruto smiled but froze something evil was rushing towards them, his body moved faster than the oncoming threat and before Anko knew what had happened the boy spun around and grabbed a hold of a grass genin is tongue, The grass ninja was shocked at the speed that was displayed before him, he had never seen a genin move which such speed, he moved like he was a jonin level and yet he felt no such chakra coming from him. Anko could see the surprised and confusion on the attacking woman is face but what really surprised her was the glare the blond genin was giving the grass nin, something was very wrong here.**

"**Who are you?"**

**Naruto spoke and Anko froze, the kid had made a whole 180 on her, instead of the laid back kid who had no worries she was seeing a serious and dangerous kid, his voice had been ice cold and commanding, the glare he was giving the grass woman was as intimidating as it was dangerous, he was no kidding around, something about this woman had set him off. **

"**Relax there kid, she is probably a show off"**

**Anko looked at the grass ninja who simply pointed at her tongue, slapping Naruto is hand away from the grass woman is mouth made her shiver, something about that tongue was eerily familiar. Looking at Naruto she could see that he was still glaring daggers at the retreating ninja, something in that grass ninja had really disturbed the blond brat. Naruto looked on at the retreating nin and frowned, there was no mistaking what he felt, even if he was a dope at sensing and feeling his surroundings he could still tell that the woman was not what she appeared to be, there was no telling what the hell she was. **

"**Naruto stop screwing around and let's go"**

**Naruto turned towards his team and saw Sakura waving at him, Sasuke for the most part was simply glaring at him, it would seem that the Uchiha had not forgotten how he was dragged away from showing off, looking at Anko he smiled slightly and rush off towards his teammates. Anko looked at the blond boy and frowned, the kid was hiding something, it was as if his whole appearance and attitude were made to fool people, he was just like her. **

"**All right maggots get your assess in gear, we ain't got all freaking day!"**

**Naruto looked at his teammates rushing in and frowned, idiots should have waiting but no they had to be the first ones to enter, quickly following them he spread out his senses and located almost all of the participants, some had decent chakra signatures, but there were those who stood out, three levels, two higher than a jonin and 4 of equal strength to that of a jonin, and others were already chunin level; something was not right here. Looking at his teammates he saw them stopping a couple of feet in front of him and raised an eyebrow at the two, it seemed that they were planning out a strategy.**

"**What?"**

"**We need to make some kind of strategy"**

**Naruto nodded, Uchiha was right, they couldn't just go in with nothing planed, idiot should have realized that before they went into the damn forest, deciding to skip the small reprimand he glanced at Sakura.**

"**Any ideas?"**

"**I think we should…."**

**Naruto frowned when something scratched his check, then all hell broke lose, a massive wave of wind laced with chakra rushed towards them but what surprised him the most was the fact that it was focusing on him, he had been stupid he had let his guard down, stupid over confident and that had cost him, he was now air born being pushed away from his team. Whoever had attacked wanted him away from the team, divide and conquer good strategy if it weren't for the fact that he could fly, unleashing his chakra he surrounded his body with it and stops the momentum, but instead of rushing back he heads straight upwards. Closing his eyes he senses his surroundings and frowns at the results, that same signature from before was near Sakura and Sasuke. **

**He was sure that that signature didn't belong to a genin level, it was far too strong and what was worse was the fact that it felt evil, he hadn't felt any thing like that since he saw the beings that Goku had fought, this guy was a weaker version of those demons and that was saying something, but he couldn't underestimate him that easily, the demons Goku had fought against could hide there true power, so if this guy was the same as those guys then he could be in deep trouble.**

"**Time to see what you're made off Naruto"**

**He smiled and rushed towards the area, nearing it he saw the giant snake rushing towards Sasuke and he frowned, the Uchiha was frozen in place, he had given up and he was ready to accept his fate, rushing in faster he pulled back his right hand and slammed his fist right onto the giant snake that was rushing towards the Uchiha, force of the punch sent the snake crashing and slamming onto the forest below them, the figure that was on top of the snake had managed to jumped off and land a few feet away from them.**

"**Naruto!"**

"**What's going? **

**Sakura looked at Naruto and told him what the problem was, the blond frowned, so Sasuke had been measured and had found himself lacking, it was to be expected, but right now he didn't need a frozen Uchiha he needed the arrogant jerk who thought was superior to the every one else.**

"**Sasuke snap out of it, that guy is not a genin, we are no match for him I will make a distraction and you get us out of here!"**

**Not a genin, Sasuke looked at Naruto and then towards the grass ninja, they woman or what ever she was had showed strength that rivaled that of Kakashi and the demon of the mist, now he knew why he was unable to keep up, he was not weak he was simply battling the wrong opponent. **

"**What can you do?"**

"**Just get ready to get Sakura out of here!"**

**The Uchiha nodded and jumped towards Sakura, the grass ninja looked at the blond who is gaze still remained locked on his and frowned, this was the boy that Kabuto had told him about, it seem that his spy had something with the blond but right now he needed to focus on the Uchiha, jumping towards Sasuke he smiled when he saw the blond move but the smile quickly faded when the blond blurred from sight and he felt an immense pain on his side. **

"**NOW SASUKE!"**

**The forest exploded in a haze of orange and Sasuke smirked when the clones began to change from orange to blue and red, landing next to Sakura he signaled her to follow, she looked back at the Uchiha and frowned, there was no way they were leaving Naruto behind.**

"**We can't, Naruto"**

"**He will be all right, we all will be, he set up this mass distracting so we could get away so let's not lose time"**

**With that multiple pairs of team 7 began to run in all directions, Sakura rushed away from the area along side Sasuke all the while wondering if the blond had managed to make it out of the area just like he did, back in the area Orochimaru cursed when eh was slammed into one of the giant trees, he had been stabbed. **

"**How did you accelerate your body in might flight?"**

**Naruto jumped away from Orochimaru with the bloodied kunai in hand, he had managed to stab the monster and he bled just like any other being, but that still left him wondering what this would battle would be like. **

"**I am not giving up my secret that easy"**

"**No I suspected as much, but I am impressed as you also managed to created over a thousand clones in quick succession, but I can still sense Sasuke and I will not leave this place with out giving him a little gift"**

**Naruto frowned, the Uchiha was the target, this guy was no genin he was no chunin or jonin either, his chakra now that he felt it up close was close to that of the Hokage, it was all being bottled up and covered some how, but this guy was powerful.**

"**Sorry but I wont let that happened, that guy might be a pain but he is still my teammate"**

"**Such loyalty, it would seem that Konoha has not change at all"**

**The grass nin smiled as she reached for her face, slowly she began to peel back he flesh and Naruto cursed, if he was doing what he thought he was doing than he was in deep trouble, adversaries who shade there skin were usually the worst, since every time they shade one of there skins there powers would increase, just like all of Goku is adversaries, he smirked oh if only his sensei could see him now.**

"**So it would seem"**

**With that said Orochimaru vanished from sight and Naruto is eyes moved, to his left a punch was headed straight for his head, he lifting his arm he immediately slashed at it and woman now turned man jumped back in surprised. **

"**You didn't block? I am surprised"**

**In each of the blond is hands two double sided kunais were held, he didn't block his attack he had slashed at the incoming fist in hopes of slashing the arm, Orochimaru smirked, who ever had trained the kid had done an excellent job at it, not only had the blond seen the oncoming attack but he had reacted on time to counter it.**

"**Your dangerous and hide most of your powers I am not taking any chances"**

"**Smart move, I would do the same and will no longer underestimate you"**

**Naruto is eyes widen when the man blurred from vision and appeared behind him, the blond barely managed to dodge the slashed of a kunai and was surprised when the black haired man managed to dodge his upper cut and re-appeared beside him unleashing a kick to his torso, Naruto cursed and increased his speed managing to jump away from the kick and throwing the kunai towards the pale man is face, Orochimaru smiled and dodged but then a huge explosion behind him sent him flying towards the blond.**

"**Got ya!"**

**Naruto slashed but when his second kunai connected with the man he cursed when it slashed at nothing but mud.**

"**Not yet!"**

**Orochimaru appeared behind Naruto again and slashed with a kunai of his own, but then the blond did something the snake Sannin had never seen before, he had vanished right before his eyes.**

"**UNGH!"**

**Orochimaru twisted in mid air and saw the blond behind him with his kunai sticking out of his shoulder. **

"**BOOM"**

**Continued…..**

**Well that is chapter 10 and a special thanks go out to my beta my pal and the one who gave the idea for naruto getting sasuke in a head lock, and about making the confrontation between sasuke and naruto a bit more manly, so huge props and thanks go out to the one and only**

**DEATHRUNNER**

**Also **

**He will devour your souls if you don't review**


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